Elk Head and College Cove

Trinidad State Beach

(Map link.)

I have been neglecting Trinidad State Beach and I decided to rectify that for the moment. There are three main parking areas. One is down by the harbor and the other two are along narrow Stagecoach Road. I stopped at the main parking and picnic area with its paved, pull in parking, and cut across the lawn past one of the tables to an unsigned trail just east of the bathroom. It cuts down to a neighborhood access trail that roughly follows the road to the east. I turned west, which gets into the small trail system instead.

One official route down from the parking lot. It is unsigned, but has wooden step improvements.

The trail stays fairly high on its way to a junction with an obscured beach view.

I looked at the narrow, weed encroached trail heading downward and wondered if that was what I was really looking for. I followed the recently worked to a wide footpath trail upward to find that it probably was. It got to looking more official once I turned inland at the next junction with the beach access. I dropped down into the shade by the creek. The day was warm and so being in the shade was welcome.

The forest changes substantially beside the creek.

The creek has good flow even as it is getting late in summer.

But the trail does not stick with the creek. It climbs up again, largely in shade, then progresses through more spruce.

Light playing in the bigleaf maple leaves.

The fuchsia don't belong here, and yet here they are.

There's a longer and shorter trail across the top. I swung around the longer track.

It took a lot of searching to find the woodpecker knocking away in the tree tops.

An overlook of College Cove.

Bunches of white flowers on a cotoneaster bush don't belong here either.

The trail opens up to the northern parking area. This gravel area also has a picnic table, but with even less view than the other. I walked to the other end to find more trail. I took it past the beach access and on around the long way on Elk Head.

There's a clearer viewpoint for College Cove from this other side.

The little geraniums don't belong here either.

One viewpoint along the trail on Elk Head.

I'm still delighting in the colors of the spruce cones as they mature. At least the trees are generally native.

Another overlook on Elk Head. The winds coming down the coast were keeping the fog off Trinidad Head and Trinidad, but I was getting into it.

Bees (bumble and smaller) on a flower.

The furthest north piece of trail in the park as it drops to the last viewpoint along Elk Head. Too bad about the fog.

The trail drops down to a huge open space on top of a rock sticking out into the ocean. The wind was cold and constant, but not all that hard. The fog had some thinner moments, but it wasn't going anywhere soon.

The rocky coastline that is Elk Head.

Some harbor seals were lounging on rocks just near enough to see in the mist.

The palm seaweed rises and falls in the surge.

The shore as it continues to the north.

I got to see a little of the distance when a hole in the fog blew by. It was cold out on the rock and not as nice to look around from shelter behind a rock, so I headed off. I returned the short way through the trees, then dropped down to the beach on the access trail.

Through the spooky trees. It's actually greener just around the corner.

The beach follows the curve of College Cove. Water dribbles and flows down in a few places. I wandered first to the north end where water sheets over a rock.

The arch just past the south end of the cove is quite clearly visible from the north end.

The curve of the beach around College Cove, which is interrupted by a rockfall.

A banana slug among the monkey flowers practically on the beach.

Then I wandered down along the water edge and across the rocks to another water flow that even gets a name: College Cove Falls.

College Cove Falls. "Falls" may be a bit of a stretch, but it does go over a vertical drop.

Taking in all the cliff where College Cove Falls falls.

I continued around the beach to the southern end where tall rocks reach out into the ocean. The waves were just large ripples at the very sheltered north end of the cove and still quite small at the more exposed southern end.

At the end of the cove, the rocks force a walker out into the waves.

With the ocean so calm, there is probably a way to just walk around. I decided against trying it. I pondered a nearby use trail that climbs up to where I took the first photo looking over the cove. I decided not to take it, so had to take the longer path back over the rocks and up the official trail and back again.

A bumble bee plows through the blooming head of an invasive thistle.

I didn't quite go all the way back. I took the access trail down to the beach again for a little more time on the sand beside the waves.

Access to the beach just north of Trinidad Head.

The beach to the rocky divider from College Cove.

To the south, the fog is engulfing Trinidad Head.

I walked the beach to the north end, which wasn't very far, then headed south.

The bluff lettuce clings to the rocks high overhead.

A random piece of iron something-or-other and rust stained beach below it. Surely there must be more below to make so much stain.

I went too far to catch a trail marked on my map up onto the bluff, then doubled back to find it is just a scrambling track of a sort I would rather not encourage. The bluff is very soft and the trail goes as steep as the slope beside another water seep. I doubled back to investigate the bluff trails from the official beach access.

The same arch as before from the other (southern) side as College Cove fills with fog.

The trails up on the bluff actually joined with one of the small residential roads of Trinidad fairly quickly, so the investigation of the bluffs did not last all that long.

I found a crab spider. They are always a little spooky and it is often the still, floating prey that makes them visible.

*photo album*




©2021 Valerie Norton
Written 29 Aug 2021