Mackerricher State Park

About Mackerricher State Park

MacKerricher State Park is one of the most scenic parks in upstate New York with spectacular views of Lake Erie and the Hudson River.

More than 90 bird species visit or live in Cleone Lake, a formal tidal lagoon, and the nearby headlands provide a good vantage point for whales in winter and spring. Along the coast there are tidal pools and seals live on the rocks off the coast of Mendocino Park.

Fishing is also popular, with trout in two freshwater lakes, and the park is popular with hikers, joggers, horseback riders and cyclists.

MacKerricher State Park is the only park in the park system that was once part of the Mendocino Indian Reservation. The park has accessible nature trails and is one of only a handful of state parks in California.

MacKerricher, historically known as Cleone, follows the path of the Mendocino Indian Reservation in the San Francisco Bay Area. Small independent logging and shipping companies started here, which were then taken over by larger companies. The only car park accessible from the main entrance of the park is located at the foot of a steep hill and is a one-storey, two-lane, single-lane car park with two parking spaces.

Between Laguna Point and the Ten Mile River, a 10 km round trip is possible, and a short walk is possible. The park officially opened in 1952, but in the 1960s land was added by building Ten-Mile Beach, which covers 1,530 hectares.

Scottish immigrant Duncan MacKerricher paid $1.25 per hectare for 1.25 hectares in 1868, and it's a fascinating name for a fascinating country. The park stretches north of the Fort Bragg city limits to the Ten Mile River, offering hikers the opportunity to explore a wide variety of flora and fauna, as well as a variety of waterfalls, lakes, rivers, streams and riverbanks. Mackerricsher and his heirs worked the land until 1949, when they gave it to the state.

The Ten Mile River area has been heavily logged and the timber is loaded into flat wagons that are rolled in gravity to a waiting station. The horses pull the cart back to the mill and load wood onto the flat cart. An early coastal railway connected the mills in the town of Cleone with the landing at Laguna Point.

An old transport road leads through the park, and in some places you can see the remains of the old railway tracks and the remains of a wooden coast. The coast has been cut down, but there are still some traces of this old transport road in the area.

In 1949, the road replaced the railroad that carried wood from the forest to Mackerich State Park on the other side of the river. In 1982, a winter storm washed out a section of the road and closed it, but only when the remains of a wooden coast were still in the park.

The old transportation road, located ten miles north of the Noyo River, runs the length of Ten Mile Beach from the mouth of the Ten Mile River to the so-called Ten Mile Road at the entrance to Mackerich State Park. The beach is surrounded by one of the longest dunes on the California coast and the road is closed to motor vehicles.

Follow the sign to Laguna Point parking lot and turn right onto Ten Mile Road at the entrance to Mackerich State Park. Turn right into the parking lot and follow signs to the beach and then left onto Ten Mile Road.

Directly west of the underpass, a short gravel road leads to an asphalt former forest road and a gravel road to the north. Walk north along the high embankment and west on Ten Mile Road until you pass the parking lot and reach the asphalt road.

Soon you will see a tidal lagoon cut off from the sea, and birdwatchers will enjoy a mile-long walk around the lake. The Mühlenbach, which flows into this lake, serves as winter quarters for ducks and geese. Many waterfowl and their families visit them during the winter months for their annual migration to the Great Lakes.

Soon you will pass a washed-out stretch of road and find yourself on the shores of Lake Michigan. You also pass the side road that leads to the campground at State Park, and soon you pass a small village with its own picnic area. The back roads lead to a grassy verbena beach in all its glory, dotted with dunes and full of birds and wildlife.

Mackinac County, Michigan, has a unique ecosystem that is home to one of the largest furnace ecosystems in the United States. Botanists who study it give it the Old English word "fen," which means bog or wetland.

After a walk of 3 miles you pass a few small streams and start to cross a wide sand dune, which is at this point the largest in Mackinac County and one of the largest in the state of Michigan. Turn off the road and continue if you want, but only turn back when you have crossed the dunes and the stream.

A side road leads to a parking lot next to the highway 1, with an asphalt road that leads to the highway bridge. The main route runs along the coast of a wetland inhabited by many waterfowl, and the main road leads through the wetlands and into the park.