MacKerricher

https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=436 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacKerricher_State_Park MacKerricher State Park is a state park in California in the United States. It is located three miles north of Fort Bragg in Mendocino County. It covers nine miles of coastline and contains several types of coastal habitat, including beaches, dunes, headlands, coves, wetlands, tide pools, forest, and a freshwater lake.

Our Mission MacKerricher State Park The mission of California State Parks is to provide for the health, inspiration and education of the people of California by helping to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities for high-quality outdoor recreation. Wild harbor seals sun offshore while scores of shorebirds forage in mounds of beached kelp at these pristine beaches and California State Parks supports equal access. Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities who need assistance should contact the park at (707) 937-5804. If you need this publication in an alternate format, contact interp@parks.ca.gov. CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS P.O. Box 942896 Sacramento, CA 94296-0001 For information call: (800) 777-0369 (916) 653-6995, outside the U.S. 711, TTY relay service www.parks.ca.gov MacKerricher State Park 24100 MacKerricher Park Road (off Hwy. 1) Fort Bragg, CA 95437 (707) 937-5804 © 2002 California State Parks (Rev. 2017) secluded coves. M acKerricher State Park’s wild beauty, diverse habitats, and moderate climate make this special place on the Mendocino Coast a gem among California’s state parks. Watch harbor seals and migrating gray whales, stroll on secluded beaches, bicycle along an old seaside logging road, and find solitude on one of Northern California’s most pristine stretches of sand dunes. PARK HISTORY For thousands of years, the Northern Pomo and the Coast Yuki thrived on the natural riches of this area. The resources were so plentiful that other local native groups were routinely permitted to travel through Pomo and Yuki lands to fish and to collect seaweed, shellfish, acorns, and other foods. Today Native American descendants still gather foods and other resources in the practice of their tribal traditions. Duncan MacKerricher and his wife moved to this area from Canada in 1864. A few years PLANT COMMUNITIES The lake area and campgrounds host a forest of Bishop and shore pine, Douglas-fir, and other types of vegetation that thrive in the favorable soil and climate. Dunes topped with sand verbena, sea rocket, sand primrose, beach morning-glory, and grasses produce a palette of yellows, reds, and greens rolling gently across Inglenook Fen-Ten Mile Dunes Natural Preserve the sand hills. Alongside an isolated stretch of beach, the Inglenook Fen-Ten Mile Dunes Natural Preserve — an unusual sand dune complex— contains several terrestrial, wetland, and freshwater ecosystems. At their widest point, the dunes extend three-quarters of a mile from the beach to Highway 1. Walk on the beach, rather than the dunes and plants, to avoid harming a number of sensitive, threatened, or endangered dune species. The headlands leading to Laguna Point are blanketed with a thick mat of non-native grasses, a result of past livestock grazing. Remnants of native plant communities, including sensitive species such as Mendocino Coast Indian paintbrush, Howell’s spineflower, Menzies’ wallflower, and other native wildflowers can be found along the headlands that extend to Pudding Creek, site of a Bishop pine popular beach and the Pudding Creek Trestle. Pudding Creek Trestle later, he bought 1,000 acres and named the land Rancho de la Laguna. He raised cattle, hogs, and draft horses. After a wharf was built at Laguna Point, MacKerricher allowed a gravity-fed railway to be built on his land from Cleone to Laguna Point. MacKerricher’s holdings became the core of the park when his heirs sold the property to the State in 1949. MAJOR FEATURES The park extends approximately nine miles along the coast. The shoreline of its southern portion consists of rocky headlands, separated by sandy beaches and coves, while miles of gently sloping beach make up the northern half. Three miles north of Fort Bragg on Highway 1, the entrance road leading to the Laguna Point boardwalk passes three campgrounds and Lake Cleone. The picturesque overpass near Lake On the beaches, you may see shorebirds foraging amid kelp on shore. The ocean, offshore rocks, headlands, shoreline, lake, wetlands, woods, and sand dunes attract more than 280 bird species. The Western snowy plover, a threatened species, inhabits sandy beaches year-round. Harbor seals sun themselves on the Lake Cleone rocks near Laguna Point. From midCleone once carried steam-driven trains December to early April, crowds are drawn to the former Union Lumber Company to the overlooks as gray whales migrate mill in Fort Bragg. Today, walkers, joggers, between the Bering Sea and Baja California. equestrians, and bicyclists use the haul Black-tailed deer are often seen near the road, as it is historically called. This road lake, as are raccoons and gray foxes. Great once extended from Fort Bragg to the Ten blue herons, mallard ducks, and doubleMile River watershed. Thirty-acre Lake crested cormorants are found year-round Cleone, formerly a brackish water marsh, at the lake, which also serves a