Patrick's Point State Park

Wedding Rock at Patrick's Point State Park

Patrick's Point State Park is 30 miles north of Eureka, CA, off highway 101. There are a number of sea stacks (large rocks that stand alone off the coastal shore). The sea stacks used to be part of the mainland but have been eroded and separated by the pounding surf over thousands of years. This beautiful park is five minutes down the road from Sound of the Sea RV Park on Patrick's Point Drive off 101 (where we are staying for about a week). This is why you can hear sea lions and sesals on the offshore rocks in the southern part of the park. You can ride your bike down to the state park, it's downhill on the way there but a bit of a struggle uphill coming back, or you can drive. But if you ride your bike in, it's free! There are some great places to explore there...Wedding Point Rock, Agate Beach, Abalone Beach and some nice hikes for starters. There's also an authentic Yurok Indian village constructed here.

This is also a great place to be (along the California highway 101 coast) any time from January to May, as the great grey whale migration is happening. The whales are traveling from their winter feeding grounds (Baja?) to their summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea. Supposedly you can see mothers and their calves quite frequently, but we haven't seen any here at the park. What we did see on an exploratory bike ride and hike, was a pair of rock climbers, climbing Wedding Rock. Yikes!

And here's his female friend who capably climbed up right after him......It was fascinating to watch them work their way up to the top of Wedding Rock...it was amazing to see how much work it was to set the equipment in place, anchor themselves, then work their way up to the top when there didn't appear to be any places to hang onto!

We're looking forward to checking out the beaches and the tidal pools if we can before we leave later in the next day or two....tides are a complicated thing. I knew there were high tides and low tides, but I didn't know there were variances in the low and high tides within themselves and that affects how much you can see each day in the tidal pools. At any rate, we hope to at least check out Agate Beach for the beautiful agate stones and polished rocks. And hopefully, we'll get the tides right for checking out the pools at low tide. With all the warnings around the beaches here, they make you nervous about going out on the beach looking!  "DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON THE OCEAN"  "WATCH OUT FOR ROGUE WAVES!"  But we'll be at the beach, provided it's not pouring down rain!