About 90 miles north of San Francisco you’ll discover Salt Level State Park–6,000 acres of grassland, seashore, and luxurious forest (each above and underwater!).
This expansive state park, situated on considered one of a number of rocky promontories off Freeway 1 that jut into the Pacific, is residence to one of many first underwater parks (marine reserves) in California.
Learn on to study Salt Level State Park tenting and the perfect locations to pitch a tent or park an RV in and round this breathtaking park.
What to Count on 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 blended evergreens that stumble upon second-growth redwoods. Grasslands and coastal brush sweep over the land on the north facet of the park.
Temperatures within the park keep pretty gentle 12 months spherical. Within the winter, the climate is moist and mildly chilly, averaging in in regards to the mid 50s. The park dries out and warms up in the summertime, hitting excellent 70- and 80-degree days with little rain.
Canines are allowed in most elements 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 had been wonderful basketweavers. The Kashaya Pomo occupied the shoreline throughout the summer time months, and moved inland within the winter to hunt. Many Kashaya Pomo descendents nonetheless dwell within the space immediately.
Within the mid 1800s, Europeans moved in and commenced logging the world 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 gentle local weather of Salt Level State Park, it’s no marvel 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 facet of Freeway 1 and Woodside on the jap facet of the freeway.
Though the campsites there are nearer to the majestic Pacific, they have an inclination to supply much less privateness and little to no shade. The sunsets from Grestle Cove, nevertheless, are breathtaking.
Woodside, the bigger household campground, is bigger than Grestle Cove and affords extra privateness, however generally is a bit noisier. Fort Ross, the historic, southernmost Russian settlement in North America, is a brief drive away, as are a common retailer, bar, and restaurant.
The campground options each extra personal and open campsites, and also you select from what’s accessible once you get there (your reservation is for the campground correct, websites should not assigned at reserving).
Each Gerstle Cove and Woodside are RV-friendly for rigs as much as 31 toes. Bear in mind 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 facet of the freeway. Nevertheless, these are sometimes unusable in moist climate.
Hike-in/bike-in websites are additionally accessible and not using a reservation, and in addition close to the Woodside Campground. These websites are way more secluded. Woodside additionally has a group-camping space.
The day-use parking zone is obtainable for overflow automotive tenting after sundown and till 9 am. When you camp right here, you should be tenting in your car, and no providers (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 most likely gained’t spend a lot time “indoors.”
The park affords a wide range of mountaineering, biking, and horse-riding trails by way of the redwoods and to the shoreline. Make your first cease on the park’s customer middle to get oriented.
On the shoreline, you’ll be able to marvel on the “tafoni” (Italian for “cavern”)–a honeycomb erosion phenomenon by which seasonal circumstances, like drying and moisture, weaken the sandstone into pits, knobs, ribs and ridges.
Along with the windswept sandstone, there’s superb geology to watch within the park, which sits on a portion of the San Andreas Fault. The shoreline right here was fashioned 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 in opposition to 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 gives you a glimpse of sea stars, sea urchins, mussels, and a number of other small fish.
Make sure to go away these creatures secure of their houses! Even slight disturbances may be deadly to them. Look, however keep away from touching.
Slightly 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 by way of January, you would possibly spy grey whales as they move by way of the bull kelp to breed alongside the Baja California coast, or see them going again north in February by way of April on their method to “summer time” within the Bering Sea.
Salt Level State Park is without doubt one of the first underwater parks (marine reserves) in California. Make sure to verify with the camp hosts earlier than you enterprise into the tidepools or the cove waters, and be conscious of posted indicators.
Get pleasure from viewing the wildlife within the space, whether or not on a hike or when enjoyable at your campsite. Search for coyotes, grey foxes, bobcats, black-tailed deer, raccoons, striped skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, badgers, and porcupines. Hardly ever, chances are you’ll 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.
Be taught extra about state park tenting throughout the USA, and every other tenting subjects in your thoughts, in any of our tenting posts!