About 90 miles north of San Francisco you’ll discover Salt Level State Park–6,000 acres of grassland, seashore, and sumptuous forest (each above and underwater!).
This expansive state park, situated on one in all a number of rocky promontories off Freeway 1 that jut into the Pacific, is dwelling to one of many first underwater parks (marine reserves) in California.
Learn on to study Salt Level State Park tenting and the very best locations to pitch a tent or park an RV in and round this breathtaking park.
What to Anticipate at Salt Level State Park
At Salt Level State Park, you’ll discover jaw-dropping surroundings the place the Pacific Ocean crashes into the craggy shoreline. Inland from the wave-beaten rocks spreads a forest of combined evergreens that stumble upon second-growth redwoods. Grasslands and coastal brush sweep over the land on the north aspect of the park.
Temperatures within the park keep pretty delicate yr spherical. Within the winter, the climate is moist and mildly chilly, averaging in concerning the mid 50s. The park dries out and warms up in the summertime, hitting excellent 70- and 80-degree days with little rain.
Canine are allowed in most components of the park, aside from on the walk-in campsites and the group campground.
Historical past of Salt Level State Park
The realm together with the park is native to the Kashaya Pomo individuals, who have been wonderful basketweavers. The Kashaya Pomo occupied the shoreline through the summer season months, and moved inland within the winter to hunt. Many Kashaya Pomo descendents nonetheless stay within the space as we speak.
Within the mid 1800s, Europeans moved in and started logging the realm and constructing their very own cities. Throughout this time, sandstone from Salt Level was used to assemble streets and buildings of a growing San Francisco. Quarried sandstone filled with holes leftover from drilling is without doubt one of the distinctive options you’ll see on the park.
Tenting in Salt Level State Park
Given the pure magnificence and delicate local weather of Salt Level State Park, it’s no surprise guests like to camp there. Learn on for a complete Salt Level State Park tenting information.
Reservations Required
Two household campgrounds can be found with reservations, Gerstle Cove on the ocean aspect of Freeway 1 and Woodside on the japanese aspect of the freeway.
Though the campsites there are nearer to the majestic Pacific, they have a tendency to supply much less privateness and little to no shade. The sunsets from Grestle Cove, nonetheless, are breathtaking.
Woodside, the bigger household campground, is bigger than Grestle Cove and gives extra privateness, however could be a bit noisier. Fort Ross, the historic, southernmost Russian settlement in North America, is a brief drive away, as are a basic retailer, bar, and restaurant.
The campground options each extra personal and open campsites, and also you select from what’s out there if you get there (your reservation is for the campground correct, websites usually are not assigned at reserving).
Each Gerstle Cove and Woodside are RV-friendly for rigs as much as 31 toes. Remember that some websites can solely accommodate RVs as much as 27 toes.
No Reservations Wanted
Along with the 2 campgrounds that require reservations, a number of others at Salt Level State Park don’t.
About 20 websites can be found as walk-in, first-come, first-served websites on the Woodside aspect of the freeway. Nevertheless, these are sometimes unusable in moist climate.
Hike-in/bike-in websites are additionally out there and not using a reservation, and in addition close to the Woodside Campground. These websites are rather more secluded. Woodside additionally has a group-camping space.
The day-use car parking zone is on the market for overflow automotive tenting after sundown and till 9 am. When you camp right here, you should be tenting in your car, and no companies (water, energy, bogs) can be found.
Issues to Do at Salt Level State Park
There’s a lot to do and see at Salt Level State Park, it doesn’t matter the place you determine to pitch your tent or park your RV–you in all probability gained’t spend a lot time “indoors.”
The park gives quite a lot of climbing, biking, and horse-riding trails via the redwoods and to the shoreline. Make your first cease on the park’s customer heart to get oriented.
On the shoreline, you may marvel on the “tafoni” (Italian for “cavern”)–a honeycomb erosion phenomenon during which seasonal situations, like drying and moisture, weaken the sandstone into pits, knobs, ribs and ridges.
Along with the windswept sandstone, there’s superb geology to look at within the park, which sits on a portion of the San Andreas Fault. The shoreline right here was shaped by the collision of the North American and Pacific tectonic plates, which resulted in varied levels of uplift from the ocean flooring because the plates continued to grind towards one another.
This violent and extended tectonic exercise has created quite a few areas for sealife to set down roots. Tidepooling in Salt Level State Park provides you with a glimpse of sea stars, sea urchins, mussels, and a number of other small fish.
Be sure you go away these creatures protected of their properties! Even slight disturbances could be deadly to them. Look, however keep away from touching.
A little bit additional out within the intertidal zone, you could find the crimson sea anemone that’s widespread on the northern California coast.
South of Grestle Cove is what divers name “South Cove,” and it’s a diver’s Mecca. Everybody from starting pores and skin divers to skilled scuba divers can benefit from the underwater world right here amid the bull kelp that adheres to the shoreline.
November via January, you may spy grey whales as they go via the bull kelp to breed alongside the Baja California coast, or see them going again north in February via April on their approach to “summer season” within the Bering Sea.
Salt Level State Park is without doubt one of the first underwater parks (marine reserves) in California. Be sure you test with the camp hosts earlier than you enterprise into the tidepools or the cove waters, and be conscious of posted indicators.
Take pleasure in viewing the wildlife within the space, whether or not on a hike or when stress-free at your campsite. Search for coyotes, grey foxes, bobcats, black-tailed deer, raccoons, striped skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, badgers, and porcupines. Not often, you could get fortunate sufficient to see a bear, mountain lion, or badger.
Plan Your Go to to Salt Level State Park In the present day
Modest by way of facilities however prosperous in pure magnificence, Salt Level State Park is the proper spot to spend an evening or two alongside the northern California coast. Let nature entertain you on this little piece of paradise.
Study extra about state park tenting throughout america, and some other tenting subjects in your thoughts, in any of our tenting posts!
