Ocean Ranch

Eel River Wildlife Area

Click for interactive map

A little after I first (and last) visited Ocean Ranch, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife launched a restoration project in this bit of the Eel River Wildlife Area that I keep meaning to check out. It gets a mention sometimes on the twice monthly DERT days by Friends of the Dunes because they decided to test the best removal system for the invasive beach grass we pull by hand. The winner for efficiency includes fire. I pulled into the now paved parking lot at the top because that's all I was expecting, only to find there is now a paved road where there was a gated, uneven track down to another parking area with picnicking that is open sunrise to sunset.

The wooden sign got an upgrade.

There was very obviously a billowing plume of smoke originating from somewhere over by the mouth of the Eel River. A blackberry hunter suspected that folks who came to Crab County Park for the 4th to light up massive mounds of sticks must not be quite done yet.

Looking out over the estuary areas of the Eel River with smoke billowing at the mouth.

Knowing the trails aren't so long around here, I decided to stay parked at the top. It's the very edge of the tsunami zone anyway. One can get in a longer hike by following Sand Road all the way to its winding end (much closer to, but still somewhat distant from, whatever was burning) or along the beach. I wandered along the flower lined road. Many of them were invasive. Bull thistles and radish didn't get any attention, but many others did.

White-tipped Ctenucha on invasive Queen Anne's lace.

The field bindweed is also invasive.

Some of the tiny flowers of an invasive ribwort plantain.

The results on the little "grass" flowers pleased me. The old dSLR seemed to be performing better at capturing little details, even with the really beat up main lens, than it had on the trail work week. I found the old charger and 2 of the 3 old batteries still work, but it is draining all batteries in half a day while doing nothing. It drains no matter which lens or battery or SD card. I chucked in some spare batteries to increase the chance there would be plenty of power for the day and was feeling pretty free about hitting the shutter as long as that battery light was still fully lit.

Lots of bird's-foot trefoil with pennyroyal embellishments, both invasive.

The tarweed is probably supposed to live here.

The twinberry honeysuckle, this one with many of its berries missing, should also be here.

Plenty of native trailing blackberry, too, but with plenty of Armenian blackberries mixed in.

The lower parking lot comes with ADA features (a parking space and a picnic table with a concrete path to it) as well as information. The interpretive trail is also meant to be ADA accessible. It is packed gravel and quite smooth but the plant growth down the middle of what used to be a road might be trouble. The old barn is gone and there's some plantings that look like they might become trees eventually.

A look across one table to the estuary. It takes a little effort for a view when down here on the flat.

Welcome and map and rules.

I headed out along the trails, taking them in turn. Specifically in left turns. The first left is the Interpretive Trail (as labeled on the map at the start) and the next left is a spur to more picnicking and a non-motorized boat ramp. The smooth gravel is easy to walk.

The trail seems much as I remember, road along levee, but the gravel is new.

Benches along the way provide views of the restored Shou'r Lalilh (McNulty Slough), reconnected with the ocean.

There's also one more picnic table and an interpretive sign at the launch.

The unmotorized boat launch.

I wandered further out along the Interpretive Trail until it finished. I was definitely enjoying the fully optical viewfinder, feeling less removed from the world when looking through it. The worry that exposure settings might be all wrong and I wasn't noticing floated way to the back of my mind.

Shore crabs scurry everywhere in the flats, popping in and out of the holes.

Oregon gumplant (marsh gumplant on the sign) colors the area yellow.

Great egrets are seen in all directions. This one stalks through the more open water.

One of the signs, this one about restoration of native plants to the distant sand dunes using fire. And Crab Park still burns.

Snapping off shots as the great egrets took flight, the camera did keep getting into a mode where it couldn't bother to focus or take pictures. Since there's not far to go, I decided to take the time to change lenses sometimes, but I couldn't reach the pocket it was in so it was very inconvenient.

And the great egret takes flight to get far off.

Maximum zoom on the beat up main lens, 55mm equivalent, then cropped, then resized from uploaded original in the album.

I remember getting to the end and starting along another levee that was too choked with blackberries to go very far. Now the trail stops far short of that at a wide space with more signs and a bench and water around. Much of the levee has been removed as part of the restoration.

Coming to the end of the Interpretive Trail.

Catching the great egret catching something, but maxing the telephoto (200mm equivalent) isn't doing much better.

There was an altercation as one great egret flew in, but it was not welcome by the other and is leaving again.

I started back, but still followed the flying great egrets a bit. I finally noticed the big green light that blares when it won't focus or take pictures. The "I'm working!" light. I was filling the buffer and it took a while to pour it all into the ancient and slow memory card.

Great egret against the sand dunes.

I also finally noticed that the preview of things looked a bit dark and started playing with EV and then delving into settings. I'd gotten the light metering setting off general and to large spot, where I like it, but fiddled with a few other things too. I found the minimum shutter speed was set to 1/30 second, which can cause some blur, but doesn't seem to have been honored. ISO was at 200 and after fiddling at 400 because... um... it said auto wasn't an option in one spot and was on auto in another. Anyway, I managed to make things noisier for the rest of the day, which was quite bright enough for ISO 100 for most things.

Some overexposed little birds in the mud flats with a few of the bigger crabs.

Cormorant in flight.

The striped shore crabs continue to strut about.

I finally realized that the "water bottle holder" I had attached to my otherwise featureless and pocketless day pack straps is, in fact, perfectly sized to chuck an extra camera lens in. Since this particular one is extra tall, it easily holds the GPS I had in it and the telephoto. I can have my lenses at hand without fiddling around with my pack! Life was looking up as I got almost back to the parking lot and turned away from it toward Sand Road.

On Sand Road looking north to Lighthouse Ranch from Ocean Ranch.

On the road, I took a short jog to the north to follow a trail over the sand dunes to the beach.

American sand wasp on seaside buckwheat.

Trail through the sand dunes.

I seemed to be walking through the burned section of the invasive beach grass removal experiments. Beach suncups were sparse and yellow sand verbena sparser, but they were there along with other natives.

Beach suncups.

A look back across the Loleta Bottoms from the lofty height of the low sand dunes.

Arriving at the beach and the upper sections of it are still a mess of driftwood.

Ripples in the sand made by the wind.

I headed for the slightly more solid moist sand and turned south where I know there are more paths that connect with Sand Road.

A look north from beside a log with the surf rolling over it.

I followed a lone California gull who didn't like it much at all.

Brown pelicans came by. They are so nice to watch gliding over the water that I stopped a while. A few dove for fish while I watched.

A pair of brown pelicans fly low ahead of the breakers.

The beach forming random cliffs of sand.

One hunting pelican as it hits the water.

The pelican coming.

Careful now or the buffer will fill.

Ripples in the wings as the pelican goes again.

Another splash as a pelican goes diving.

Spotting a trail, I headed up it. It gave me a higher point to watch the pelicans from, at least briefly.

Heading inland over the sand dunes once more.

Wave to the pelicans.

I headed back north on Sand Road to the trails once more, then back up trails and road.

Sending the great egrets flying once more.

A dry patch beside the old levee.

The turkey vulture keeps its ragged flight feathers symmetrical.

A little song sparrow along the road.

I finished the hike having taken over 600 photos, which is a very large number considering the rather small hike. The camera wasn't even registering low battery, which is what I expect, but far superior to recent performance. It also stopped blinking on the light that helps it focus in low light when I close the battery door. This is not something that I remember it doing before. So it's fixed? Without actually doing anything to fix it? I'll take it. Now to get that spot off the sensor. I've cleaned it a few times and it persists.

*photo album*




©2026 Valerie Norton
Published 28 Jul 2026