Sinkyone State Park

After the Avenure of the Giants on Wednesday, Jeff and I wanted to check out the coast.  When I was discussing this road trip with a coworker before I left, he said, "When you get to Garberville, head west and hang out in Sinkyone Wilderness State Park.  It is the coolest most beautiful place I have ever been."

So when we got to Garberville we headed west to the coast.  I didn't really do much other research on Sinkyone, just knew which roads to take and where it was.

Northern California is more back woods than anywhere in the Ozarks.  Really, it is nuts.  The roads are wind ridiculously with lots of unnerving blind turns.  And the locals drive them like they are race car drivers.  Along the roads there are lots of strange shacks or nasty old RVs/buses converted to homes where lunatic hippies smoke their weed and live in "peace."   Their "yards" look like a scene out of Hoarders.

We drive for an hour and get to a place called Four Corners where we were instructed to stay straight. This little creature greeted us, I think it was a warning.

Instead of turning around when we saw this, we continued down the sketchy dirt/mud road.  We saw a sign so we knew we were headed into the park.

It was at this point the dirt and mud road turns into a steep, narrow, winding hazard.  To top it off fog rolls in and we can't see a thing.  I'm sure the views on a clear day are amazing, but all we saw was fog.  And the roads were so scary, with no way to turn around.  We did see this beautiful scene:

We were able to turn around after 2 miles and headed back up the steep horrible muddy road.  After several panic attacks and several pairs of soiled pants, we made it out.  We should have never gone down that road, we really were lucky to not get stuck in the mud or have car trouble.  Oh and no cell phone reception.

After the fact, I did check out the website and here is some info:
The rugged wilderness that once characterized the entire Mendocino Coast can still be explored and enjoyed in the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. Since there are no main highways near the coast in this vicinity, the area has come to be called the "Lost Coast."


No real warnings or indications that it is out in the boonies and pretty dangerous. Oh well, at least we are safe.