Hikers Guide
The California Coastal Trail Whole Hike of 1996
ON NATIONAL TRAILS DAY, June 1, 1996, six hikers rendezvoused at the Oregon-California border to begin a hike of nearly 1200 miles along the spectacular, diverse California coast to Mexico. When they completed the trek three months and three weeks later, this remarkable journey became the first group hike of the entire California Coastal Trail.…
Read MoreWe Want a Marine Sanctuary, not Offshore Oil!
Imagine, as you walk along the north coast on the Coastal Trail, looking out over the Pacific and seeing ten oil drilling platforms. That’s what Big Oil wants and the U.S. Department of Interior has proposed in Lease Sale #53, currently on hold thanks to intense public opposition. As long as our society is dependent…
Read MoreMarine Terrace Geology and the Pygmy Forest
From Mendocino County south to San Diego, an irregular series of marine terraces, or wave-cut benches, occur between the shoreline and the coastal foothills. Carved by waves and wind-driven water at sea level, these terraces feature a vertical, or steeply rising, cliff face at their seaward edge (bluffs) backed by a level or gently sloping…
Read MoreThar She Blows! Whale Watching
The California Coastal Trail provides some of the best whale watching in the state. If you hike the coast between December and May, you’ll have excellent chances to see some of the 18,000 California gray whales that swim the west coast each year. If you hike CCT in summer or autumn, you might get lucky…
Read MoreThe Coast Miwok and Their Neighbors
As we move south along the California coast, the fate of its native cultures grows increasingly harsh. While all native cultures suffered from white settlement, some of the northern tribes like the Tolowa and Yurok discussed earlier were able to maintain sufficient population to retain much of their cultural identity. North of the Russian River,…
Read MoreTomales Bay
Tomales Bay exists as a feature of the San Andreas fault. Here two huge plates of the earth’s crust move against each other, the Pacific plate west of the bay and the North American plate to the east. The crack in the earth’s surface between the plates sinks in some locations, forming what geologists call…
Read MoreWhy It’s Called the Kortum Trail
For the past forty years, virtually every time Sonoma County’s environment or public access has been threatened, Bill Kortum has been there fighting for the earth and for your rights. When PG&E started building a nuclear power plant atop the San Andreas fault on Bodega Head in the early 1960s, no environmental movement was fighting…
Read MoreThe Russian River
World class salmon fishery, vacation playground for San Francisco, giant redwoods, Stumptown, and sewer discharge all help describe the beautiful river that flows 110 miles from the hot inland Mendocino County hills before pouring into the ocean near the village of Jenner in Sonoma County. This diverse river flows through chaparral and oak woodlands, fir…
Read MoreThe Russians at Fort Ross
One of the most unusual places in California perches atop a bluff overlooking the wild and scenic Sonoma coast beside a small sheltered cove. Fort Ross State Historic Park takes you back to March 1812 when 25 Russians and 80 native Alaskans dropped anchor in the cove and established what they hoped would be a…
Read MoreThe San Andreas Fault System
The California coast as we know it has been and continues to be created by the collision of two immense tectonic plates, the North American continental plate and the Pacific oceanic plate. The head-on collision of the two plates about 150 million years ago created the Sierra Nevada Range. Approximately 20 million years ago, the…
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