Lost Coast: Punta Gorda and Mattole Beach

King Range National Conservation Area

DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4


Purple line for day 4. Click for map.


I got started with the dawn and the rain started up again a few minutes after I left the tent. I pulled on my puffy jacket for the first time in the trip and quickly traded it for my rain coat. The rain wasn't hard enough to worry about, but it was just too warm to have a full jacket on. I packed up and was on the trail with the sunrise, wherever the sun might be. The pair by the beach were long gone already while the more sheltered pair weren't even stirring. The tide was at its lowest for the day, right around 0, as I started north. It marked the first time I tried traveling one of the sections denoted "impassible at high tide, travel during a receding tide" during a rising tide. I wasn't too worried. I had a little over a mile to Cooskie Spur Route, and after that there is an overland route.

Leaving Cooskie Creek, which soaks into the sand before the ocean, especially at low tide. The sun was almost up, but it would be a while before it gets here.

The beaches told me there were more than my near beach neighbors moving in the very early morning. The sand washed smooth by the last high tide bore four lines of footprints from another southerly march. They never seemed to wander over to the water to check the pools, but I have to admit that my own wandering were still unsatisfactory. Lots of kelp. Limpets. A starfish. Some gooseneck barnacles and muscles. One hermit crab. Turban snails. Without wandering, I got to see the antics of the shore crabs. I started worrying that I would crush a few.

Early morning footsteps in the high tide washed sand.

The purple shore crab (Hemigrapsus nudus, you can tell it by the purple polka dots) figured it could take me. It has that pincher claw after all.

Not too much to see in this tidepool.

Limpets look like they could be as stuck as barnacles, but they're a type of snail.

Striped shore crabs (Pachygrapsus crassipes) hanging onto tiny ledges on a rock.

Rocky beach ahead.

The rain came and went and my thoughts that maybe I should put the rain coat back on came and went. As the rocks on the beach got larger, I found myself slipping more often. I fell once and managed to get my foot so stuck in one slot between a pair of rocks that I had to remove my shoe before I could reverse the action. I looked around and noticed that there is a sort of trail developing just below the cliff where lots of footsteps show in a collection of smaller rocks. I stepped with care to get up to it and follow it.

Lots of snails. The limpets are also snails. The pink layer on the rocks underwater is also a living thing.

Past the bigger rocks is a point that is labeled "impassible at all tide levels."

I passed the remains of a building visible hanging from the cliff as I approached the Cooskie Spur Route. I could see no trail and no signs beyond a tall cairn in a bit of erosion with a fence suspended above it. I went for that and found myself with a bit more trail at the top and some more collapsing buildings.

Bits and pieces of an old ranch at the lower end of the Cooskie Spur Route.

Just past the buildings, there is a sign pointing left marked LCT. No mention of the Cooskie Spur Route since it is "unmarked and unmaintained". Hiking north again, I passed what was once a garden planted with agave and a tent that wasn't ready to go anywhere yet, then I was dropped right back down to the beach.

The gully I camped near on the first night. Trail clings to the edge of it.

There's harbor seals out on the rocks and in the ocean.

Back on the beach for a short while.

After the stretch of beach, the trail goes up again by Sea Lion Gulch. Where wasn't very obvious until I accepted that it might be right next to, and sometimes in, the water coming down a rocky cut. I found a steep way up and was in another camping area, but this one wasn't occupied. I felt it offered a good perch for snacking, though.

The camp above Sea Lion Gulch and the beach. The tent on the next rise still doesn't seem to be ready to move.

Would you believe, there is a common haul out rock for sea lions out in the ocean by Sea Lion Gulch?

It took me a second try to find the right trail out of the camp area, but once found it was quite nice.

The trail ahead that only once felt a little thin and unsteady.

Maybe these tide pools are nice? The cormorants on the whitened rock felt I was far enough away to ignore.

The Punta Gorda lighthouse is just visible.

The trail dropped down to the beach again and walked the sand until, very quickly, I was done with walking in sand. But first, I almost missed a waterfall on Willow Creek.

A gully through a harder rock yields a waterfall on Willow Creek.

Closer look at the water coming down. Okay, it's not so much.

A line of kelp fading from deep red into purple and then yellow marks the high tide line today.

The trail passes through a gate and past some concrete foundations before coming to the lighthouse. The interpretive sign near the lighthouse mentions "stately two-story homes" that were once on top of the foundations.

Some of the many pieces of debris that wash up. The big metal things stay quite a long time.

Then I got distracted by the seals on the beach. A little noisy and constantly posturing at each other, they were a bit different from the spotted ones I have been finding. They are why there was a sign warning about elephant seals when approaching the lighthouse from the other side. The geocachers tell me these will come all the way up to the trail to relax in the sun. I was happy to no longer be on the beach, but felt brave enough to wander to the edge of an unoccupied camp site to get a closer look.

Some of the posturing going on. While there is a lot of open mouths, there doesn't seem to be much biting. It's just trying to rise up higher and push the other.

They look like they're just having a little chat.

The males had a little chat, too. Now the lighter one is getting run off. They'll get there eventually.

They take some time out of swimming to push at each other too.

I eventually made it to the lighthouse in spite of all the distractions. Really, I wasn't in a hurry because the map says there's two points that aren't passable except at low tide and the rising tide was well past the 3 foot mark. I took a little time to look around the lighthouse, but it doesn't take long. There is a circular center with stairs (iron, but not yet too far gone) like a circular ladder up it to the lamp area. There are rooms on either side with closets filling in the spaces around the circular center.

The Punta Gorda lighthouse as it exists now. It has been long abandoned and never had electricity although it did serve at a time when most did.

The view from the top. It doesn't get that much higher.

The oil house below gives two more rooms to explore. The further one has two rusting tanks.

I decided to hang out a while and watch the elephant seals a bit longer, especially when I saw there was another bit of rain coming up from the south. While the rain fell, the seals were almost quiet on the beach, just resting. The few out in the waves were still playing and posturing. I took off after the rain although it was setting me up to hit the choke points at the highest tide.

Maybe it's like a thumb war.

Back to Fourmile Creek and the cabins beside it. There's two day hikers coming this way on the beach.

I followed trail and a bit of beach and came to where things indicated was the impassible point. I saw a lot of sand to pass on even though the tide should have been at nearly six feet. I read the logs for the geocache just on the parking side of the point and found that people really did get turned back at that point. Certainly wouldn't if it looked like I saw it.

As near as I can tell, this is the point that is impassible at high tide. There may be some seasonal changes here that are making it so very passible at high tide.

Back over the beach to the impassable point, which is quite passable. There's another pair of day hikers.

The other impassible point? It's passible for me today.

I even got a little sunshine, and when I did, it got hot. I guess sometimes you can't win for not losing. Just as the rain wasn't bad, neither was the heat.

I think I mentioned that I love seeing the pelicans in flight as the glide over the waves.

Almost back to Mattole Beach.

There I was watching the waves wrap themselves around the sandy point when a group of nine backpackers meandered by going southerly.

The last bit looks to be inland, but is still a slog through sand. I got back to the trailhead and finally looked over the kiosk there. Since I'd gone the other way from my parking spot, I hadn't seen it yet. They have maps on this side, too, although not so many. I decided to walk out to the river before finishing. I had seen a trail from the other end of the campground when I was up high, so I made my way through it. It had a lot more people in it than before, but the trail was right where I expected it to be.

The Mattole River as it comes to the beach. Even the river soaks into the sand entirely before reaching the ocean.

I relaxed on a driftwood tree for a while, then headed back to the car. Even with all those people I saw going south, there was only one more car in the lot than when I started. The guys with the mules were still out there. What dreadful luck them must have been having. And to think they walked so much extra to get to their hunting areas too. I'm sure they got something when the time was right.




©2020 Valerie Norton
Written 28 Sep 2020