Mendocino Headlands State Park

About Mendocino Headlands State Park

Located in the picturesque downtown Mendocino, the park features a grassy headland with scenic views of the San Joaquin River and Santa Cruz Mountains.

The trails, popular with hikers and joggers, are bordered by the San Joaquin River and the mountains of Santa Cruz and the Mendocino Valley.

Visitors to Mendocino can find up-to-date historical information about the area, including a scale model of Mendoza in the 1890s. The Ford Museum offers weekend talks on wildlife, and the park is a whale-watching destination in winter. Volunteers run a number of educational programs, including the Mendocinos of the Bay Area, a summer camp for children and adults.

During your time at Ford House, visit the Mendocino Headlands Museum, a museum of Mendoza and Bay Area history, and visit the teachers on the beach.

The village of Mendocino is surrounded by the park, with its secluded beaches and its own paths. A three-kilometer (three-mile) trail winds along the cliffs, offering casual hikers scenic views of the headland and San Francisco Bay, as well as scenic views of Santa Cruz and Mendoza.

The original idea for the park was conceived by Mendocino residents in the late 1960s and opened in 1974, according to the California Department of Natural Resources.

Mendocino Headlands State Park, the largest national park in the United States with more than 1,000 acres of land, is about 1.5 miles north of San Francisco, according to the park.

You can escape the cool summer climate, enjoy clear autumn days, see spring flowers, experience the winter migration of the gray whales and the winter migration of the gray whales. Rumours of a planned development on the headland brought people together who wanted to preserve the land as natural open space. Parkland Mendocino now offers a buffer zone that preserves the city's historic presence. In return, it offers free access to the park and free parking for cars and trucks.

Big River Beach is located on the south side of Mendocino and activities range from hiking to surfing, fishing and diving. There are no campsites and visitors are only day visitors, but there is a campsite in the park for overnight stays, as well as a campsite and picnic area with picnic tables.

Photographers and painters often visit different parts of Mendocino, capture the scenic wonders and enjoy them in their own way.

Mendocino is perhaps the most popular tourist destination in the state of California and one of the top five in California. The town, located north of the mouth of the Big River, resembles a New England village, no doubt designed by its Yankee founder.

The Big River is not known for its length or width, but for the redwoods that once grew on its banks.

For over a century and a half, various timber companies have owned the Great River region, and today the headland is protected by a state park and lined with paths that offer a picturesque view of Mendocino's second - growing sequoia. The Redwood Trail, the largest hiking trail in the state of California, is a large facility that was incorporated into California's park system in 2002. The Big River Beach Trailhead is about a mile from the trail's first stop, the Redwoods State Park Trailhead.

The new park is also important for birds and provides habitat for a number of endangered and endangered bird species and other wildlife, including spotted owl. The Big River is home to more than 1,000 birds of prey as well as a variety of mammals, reptiles and amphibians. State, federal and local funds and donations, secured by the Mendocino Land Trust, helped create the National Park.

This park preserves one of the largest and most diverse forests in the state, the Great River Redwoods.

Kayaking and canoeing are popular activities, and paddling through the forested canyons of the Big River is a pleasure when paddlers have time to plan their journey with the tides. The mouth of the Big River is just a short walk from the park's main entrance at the northern end of Mendocino cape.

Proud locals claim that the new park is home to some of the best blackberries in the world, and to back this up, they head out to the berry harvest in late summer.

The Big River State Park is virtually surrounded by public land, and hikers can hike through the park and adjacent parkland. You can join a path that spans more than 100 miles, from the Big River Trail to the Red River's North Fork.

The main road in this case is the Big River Haul Road, which runs loosely parallel to the Great River on the north side and winds from end to mouth for 8 km. This ancient forest road leads to a series of hiking trails, some of which stretch for more than 100 miles. Rangers warn that numerous dead-end and skidding lanes criss-cross the park, meaning it is easy to get frustrated, disoriented and lost when you move away from the main roads.

Many of the confusing old forest roads are closed because, as park planners put it, "you can't walk for as long as you want without a permit.

The Southwide Trail runs along the south side of the Big River and you can walk from the park's main parking lot to the trailhead on the north side or the Southside Trail.

The impressive redwoods and the view of the river are the highlight of this two-kilometer walk, but soon the view opens up to the homonymous river and the city of Mendocino. There is no maintained route so you can walk along the Big River and its tributaries like the San Joaquin River, and it may soon be too washed out and overgrown to use.

We continue along the well-watered, fern-covered slopes of the Big River to the Mendocino Headlands State Park Trail, a 2.5-mile walk through the woods.

Historic Ford House is a museum located on the grounds of Mendocino Headlands State Park, just a few miles from the entrance to the park. The museum displays a scale model of the Mendoino exhibit, built in 1890 by local craftsman Len Peterson, and offers a variety of videos to watch, from great gray whale migrations to the history of California's most popular tourist attraction, the Santa Cruz Mountains. These videos are presented free of charge upon request, but Ford House provides current and historical information to MendOCino visitors.

Jerome B. Fordt lived in the house he built in 1854 for his bride Martha and his wife Mary. He was the head of the first sawmill in Mendocino and is considered by many to be the founder of our city.

During this time, visitors will be drawn into an exhibition of the Ford House and see historical photos, tools and relics that tell the story of Jerome B. Fordt and his life and work in Mendocino.

The walk is led by a lecturer and also offers a weekend lecture on wildlife and is open to the public on Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm.

Accessible by car from Highway 1, Big River Beach is located on the south side of Mendocino Cliff.

The beach is used by picnickers, sunbathers and surfers and is accessible by boat from Historic Ford House, which is operated by the Mendocinos Area Parks Association.

Mendocino Headlands State Park opened in 1974 and the Big River wetlands cover a wide range of habitats. The park was expanded to include the Big River wetlands in 1990, creating a 7,400-acre wildlife corridor that connects coastal and inland habitats. In 2002, the park was expanded to include the Big River wetlands.

Mendocino Headlands State Park borders the northern border of Mendocinos County and the San Francisco Bay Area to the east and north.

To the south lies the San Francisco Bay Area and the dammed-up, separated by the Mendocino Headlands National Wildlife Refuge to the north and San Jose State University and Lake Merritt and Damme State Park to the south, separating it from the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Clara County to the east.

Learn more about Big River Beach at Mendocino Headlands National Wildlife Refuge, a national wildlife refuge in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California.

The headland is also the site of the Mendocino Music Festival, and in the evening there are breathtaking concerts. The festival has been held for over two decades and is the largest music festival of its kind in North America. The day includes music, food, art, crafts, games, activities for children and a variety of other activities.