Jug Handle State Reserve

About Jug Handle State Reserve

The Jug Henkel State Reserve is located on the Mendocino coast, and the 769-acre park has a self-guided nature trail called Ecological Staircase, which explores five hilly terraces formed by the tectonic marine activity that has built up the coast.

The terraces are raised above sea level, and the lower terrace is a prairie; the second is covered with pine trees, the third bears knee-high trees - tall trees that can be several decades old. The plants on the terraces represent a more advanced stage of succession, suggesting what the earlier, near-lower terraces might have looked like 100,000 years ago. Two and a half kilometres long and two kilometres wide, visitors can take the path from the park entrance to admire the flora and fauna.

The sequence of sea stairs suggests a history unparalleled in any other part of California. The history of the ocean and its role in the creation of Jug Henkel State Park offers a wide range of interpretations.

Jughandle State Reserve occupies a special place in California history, as well as in the Pacific Ocean as a whole. The ecological succession is documented as far back as the end of the 19th century, and even further than in California itself.

The five terraces represent steps in a series of successive environments, and Jughandle is therefore an important place to interpret the history of the Pacific Ocean and its role in the development of California's natural environment.

The terraces provide a material basis for the construction of the Pacific Ocean and the development of the natural environment of California, with the ocean being the primary water source for all of this.

Over the last millions of years, the North American continent has moved northwest, and the coast of the Mendocino coast has risen due to sea level rise caused by the melting of continental glaciers. The structure of terraces such as Jughandle's is the result of this change in the composition of sandstone, a material that has a long history as a building material. Over time, the soil, plants and hydrological associations of these terraces have been affected by a degree of change caused by the weathering of the sandstone. Some of them survived because they were made from the same raw material, but others did not.

These two factors have a massive impact on the design of these land forms and are considered an important factor in the development of the landscape of the Jughandle State Reserve over the last few thousand years.

Some of Jug Henkel's most important sculptures are in the sea, such as those at the entrance to the State Reserve and the two sculptures on the north shore of Jug Henkel Lake.

During the Pleistocene, when glaciers retreated north, sea levels rose and waves sank as they fell. When the throbbing waves were lifted from land, they formed a smooth underwater deck.

The retreating waves scattered deposits of gravel, sand and beach material on the terraces.

The continued rise freed the terraces from the subsequent rise in sea level, and they have since been freed by continued increases due to rising sea level.

This repetitive sequence takes place at intervals of about 100,000 years and involves about 100 feet of buoyancy to form the terraces. The active ingredient that forms the land at Krug-Henkel is wind, and the beach material is exposed to the weather. The older a terrace is, the longer it stands in the water, and with rising sea level the new terrace must be laid out where the old one used to be.

Similarly, in the past, the edges of the terraces were covered with dunes and building materials that are now ancient. The coastal breeze left beach material on the first terrace, where the cliffs were lower, and dune building material on the second.

The reserve, divided by Highway 1, extends from the interior to the coast and from the coast to the interior. The reserve is located on the west side of the Caspar River, in the southern part of the Jug Handle State Reserve and borders the highway, which is one mile north of Cas Parces.