SINKYONE WILDERNESS

I was so fed up with not being able to drive anywhere and go on hikes so I signed up for a backpacking trip through Humboldt States Center Activities. For $65 you get a 3 day trip and get to meet new people with similar interests. The Sinkyone Wilderness was once inhabited by the Sinkyone Indians, then of course, greedy loggers came in and logged here for years. The land was finally saved and turned over to the state for preservation. This is also part of the Lost Coast. It was given the term because Cal Trans was unable to put the PCH through this stretch of land because of the rugged terrain and steep bluffs. Its just barely in Mendocino County and is also part of the "Emerald Triangle".

The nearest "town"

This is blurry because I snapped it while we were driving, but please note the 3.5 miles to Needle Rock. This took 1 hour, thats right....1 hour to get to. The road was so washed out, steep had rock slides and trees down all over it. If you ever decide to go here, you better have a 4x4 car because you go over some pretty large ditches from the mini creeks that washed out the road. Also, its one lane.....on our way out we came across 4 cars coming in and it was quite the puzzle trying to go around each other.

The visitor center. A Park Ranger gets to stay here for one month. The nice man who was here for April has done it for 13 years. He told us he has seen whales everyday in the last week from here, and noted a bear sighting down at Wheeler Campground 4 days ago.....scary!

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd the view from the visitor center

We had to hike .2 miles to Stream Side campground for night one. We arrived fairly late, in overcast and windy conditions. We had to set up camp fast and ended up cooking in the dark. It would end up raining off and on all night. It was the first time my tent has had to be in the rain, and it did a great job keeping me dry and warm!!

Needle Rock

Dusk of night one. I couldn't as for a better view.

this is great, latrines at every campground and they even had toilet paper!!

the view in front of my tent on day 2

the view behind my tent

I sleep where Elk go to the bathroom

view from our campsite

This is heading north, we are going south. I would love to do this trail one day however.

coming back to the cars for our breakfast burrito car cooking breakfast we were greeted by these girls. The Elk in the Sinkyone are transplants from Prairie Creek State Park (where me Jarod and Danna went last summer)

Why hello

I counted AT LEAST 18 elk up here. There were more further down the bluff toward the ocean.

Latrine's view from the visitor center

who i had breakfast with

awesome life with a great view!

ACTUAL SIZE?!?!?! I practically bathed in DEET so I didnt get any

This road is closed because the county owns it and refuses to maintain it during the rain season. This meant we had to hike 3 miles to the actual trailhead.

12 strangers going on a 3 day backpacking trip.....turned out to be a great crew!

right off the bat, these 3 elk were right by the trail.

we got closer and they didn't want to move, so we just walked right by them. At the bottom you will see the video of us walking by them, you can see how close we really got!!

heres a little garden snake that was literally right across from the elk on the other side of the trail!

Nothing but amazing views all along the hike to Bear Harbor

lots of tiny creeks ran by the trail/road

great views

the trail/road

great hiking view

looking north

Flat Rocks. They say seals LOVE hanging out here, however we never saw any here

tiny creek crossing

lily's with morning dew/rain on them

I decided to wear the Germany soccer jersey Jarod got me, thought it would be a cool backpacking shirt and am getting excited for the World Cup in June!!

see our trail?!

Orchard Campground is here. This is where the road actually ends and the trail begins. I used the latrine and I think I was the first person to use it in a long time, lots of cobwebs covered the door, yuck!

Trailhead, only 1 mile to Bear Harbor which is where we will decide if we want to stay there for the night or continue on to Wheeler Campground

I loved how friendly this bear looked

cool creek! Ends up this creek would be running right through our campground

So we made it to bear Harbor....do we want to stay here or continue to Wheeler for the night.....

like it already....lets just stay here

crossing the little bridge to our "kitchen". We kept our kitchen away from where we slept so any critters would be far away from us if they decided to come down for scraps.

View from the kitchen, still cloudy.

a shot of the bridge we have to cross

Arriving at camp. I'm going to set up my tent under that yellow tree, because it's cool looking.

ironically, one of the guys found this old washed up soccer ball in the brush. Of course, they thought I would enjoy playing with it.

first view of the beach. That creek is what separates our "kitchen" area from the rest of our campground

A few giant driftwood logs sat in the harbor. This one looked cool so I took a few pictures of it

lots of trash washed ashore here in the harbor, especially lots of things from fishing boats. Here is a perfect example

During my research of the Sinkyone I noticed a great viewpoint. As soon as I set up my camp I ran up to it to take in the view.

And on the other side of the point is a beach that can only be reached on low tide

Flowers growing off the side of the point

the rest of the crew down on the beach

looking back at camp from the viewpoint

THE SUNS COMING OUT!

looking south from the point. You can see how narrow the ledge is that I'm on

the whole beach is black rocks and pebbles

looking south

beautiful ocean

campground with the clouds parting

view from the "kitchen"

wildflowers

where I will be spending my second night, under the coolest tree around and 10 feet away from a nearby stream

looking out toward the beach from my camp

view of our camp. Kitchen to the left under the trees then my tent under the yellow tree to the right (click to enlarge)

view of the harbor from our campsite

lizard

on the way to our mini day hike, 2 buck elk were blocking the trail. This guy sat there for about 5 minutes before he graciously moved up the hill to let us pass.

view from the hike

old growth trees along the trail

Rocks seen from the point

stream we stopped at

lots and lots of ferns

Redwood grove

lots of trees

He was blocking the trail on the way back again, but this time he was more courteous and moved right when he saw us. He decided to watch us from close range though.

Back to the point with the sun shining in full force!

Here are the rocks again, that we just saw from the bluff

looking out over Bear Harbor

looking on the other side of the harbor. You can see how narrow the ledge is at the top!

looking back from the point you see both beaches and our camp sites (click to enlarge!)

you can see my tent and tree from the point

we had a mini bonfire on the beach for our last night

good night

and gooooooooood morning! I was afraid it would be foggy and wet in the morning but we woke up to this at 8 am. Couldn't ask for more

BOBCAT tracks!! I followed them to a pile of rocks where multiple tracks were. We think they came down from the bluff during low tide to pick up some food!

sun peeking through the trees

with low tide comes tide pools

looking back towards the point

look at those skies!

you can see straight through this water, amazing to see ocean water this clear in California

Tide Pools

more tide pools

I decided to climb on a rock underneath my point and hang out while we still had low tide

this is my view from the rock

good view

birdies sun bathing

black sand

some of the group made this bridge to get across to the other side of the beach. They called it "Starfish Bridge" as you can see a dead starfish on the giant log

The elk from yesterday decided to come down and hang out in the campground

from my tent you can see the elk in the background

the tree and tent!

the creek that went by our kitchen area

the Elk moved up the hill to eat lunch

relaxing on the point before we had to head out. Temps were in the 70's

we had our last group lunch on the point

looking back at camp one last time

me in my favorite tree

you can see what the wind has done to it

Mason wanted to climb a tree as well

my soccer ball with the view from the kitchen. I left the ball for the next campers to play with

little gopher

Goodbye Bear Harbor

views from the hike back

See the arches?

Here's a close up

wow

Flat Rock....still no seals

One last amazing view

Truck full of our packs ready to head back

VIDEOS FROM TRIP

While sitting on the point for our group lunch, birds began dive bombing the waters to grab fish. You hear Joel suggest that maybe a school of fish moved into the cove and the birds decided it was lunch time.

Here is the view from the rock I sat on during low tide of day 3

Some of the elk we had breakfast with

The elk we walked by on the trail

and finally, the view from my point....amazing