Lu Vickery introduced me to this fabulous hike. Since then I’ve done this walk many times, and never get tired of it. Friends I’ve introduced it to feel similarly. The hike is a loop, starting just past the Alder Creek bridge going south from Irish Beach, taking you down an abandoned paved road that formerly delivered you to Manchester State Beach where Alder Creek runs into the ocean.
What I do is take off from the old road above the Fraser Ranch to the west. (See photo of gate.)
The landmark is a gate and a sign about keeping your pet on leash. The gate previous to this one has a “no trespassing” posting and some imposing bulls in the pasture. So walk through the passage to the left of the appropriate gate with your animal on leash if you have one, and head down the dirt road toward the ocean. Follow the road/trail south. You will shortly come to an abandoned beach house that obviously burned down.
It is posted as a dangerous site and you are warned not to explore. But you can see from the remains that someone at some point had an ocean side treasure.
Continue down the trail. You will pass an abandoned outhouse and then a functioning one that indicates you’re on the border of the Manchester State Beach campground.
Ahead is a grove of large cypress, and under the sheltering branches are the campsites. (These are reserved through the State Park website and accessed from a parking lot at the end of the road leading to the KOA campground from Hwy One near Manchester. It’s about a quarter mile to transport your camp equipment from the parking lot to a campsite. No easy task.) These campsites are a little known asset of the State Park system. ( I met a family who comes up every summer from Petaluma and lives at one of the sites for several weeks. The two boys gather firewood, explore and build forts.)
To complete the loop, walk up to the spot where Alder Creek meets the ocean.
On the south side is the trail, roughly, that takes you back up to the abandoned paved road. Return to your car. The views of the hills to the east, especially in the afternoon light, is truly lovely. Your total trip is about 5 miles according to friends of mine who I took on this walk telling them it was only about 2 to 3 miles. I didn’t know they wore pedometers. But it was good to find out the true nature of things to properly set the expectations of future companions.
Next up: Exploring the Garcia River and Point Arena Lighthouse trails.
