Introduction:
What? : Russian Gulch State Park offer ocean cliffs with large blow hooll, sandy beach and lush forest canyon and waterfall.
Where? : Located
only two miles north of Mendocino town.
Google Map Link
Due note 1:
When writing this blog (March 2021), looks like Fern Canyon trail is closed for
renovation until further notice. The
closure is from the Russian Gulch Fern Canyon trailhead in Russian Gulch State
Park to the junction of the Falls Loop Trail.
Due note 2: This
is one of the most popular parks in Mendocino area, when we tried to enter long
summer weekend at around noon the park was close for cars, after few hours we
came back and manage to get inside.
Due note 3: The
fee is $8 per car and the pass allows you to get into any other state parks you
visit that day.
My thoughts: We
visit this park on Labor Day weekend, it was full. We did not manage to get
inside the park during noon time, so we went to hike at the nearby Point
Cabrillo Light Station. We came back at the afternoon and had only a short
visit to the beach below the bridge without any hike.
Must come again
for Fern Canyon Loop and waterfall and the Sinking Whole near the ocean.
Additional Nearby attractions:
- Russian Gulch State Park
- Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens
- Skunk Train roundtrip from Fort Bragg to inland Northspur
- MacKerricher State Park
- Point Cabrillo Light Station State Historic Park.
- Little River State Park
- Van Damme Beach State Park
- Point Arena Lighthouse
The visit:
Just two miles
north of Mendocino you can find the Russian Gulch State Park entrance on your
left (going north).
The park has
sections both on west of hwy 1 (coastline section) and on the east side (Fern
Canyon).
Just two miles
north of Mendocino combines a three-mile leafy canyon with windswept headlands
and pristine beaches along the park’s rocky coastline. Inland, a 36-foot
waterfall plunges down into a bower of redwoods, mosses, and ferns. Along the
coast, waves crash into a collapsed sea cave called Devil’s Punchbowl, and the
photogenic Frederick W. Panhorst Bridge rises gracefully 100 feet from the
bottom of the gulch.
The park has 3
“sections”: the coastal headlands, the sandy beach below the bridge and the
forest covered Fern Canyon to the east.
Coastal headlands:
The coastal rugged headlands fingering out into the Pacific for mile and a half of ocean frontage. On the north side of the riverbank you can find the Devil’s Punch Bowl. This is one of the best blowholes on the Mendocino Coast.
A tunnel leading into the
cliff rock has been formed by the waves and at its end there is 100 feet across
and 60 feet deep hole in the ground. At high wave the water is being pushed
into the lower tunnel and blow up at the open hole.
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