Navarro River Redwoods State Park - California
Navarro River Redwoods State Park is a state park in Mendocino County, California, consisting of 660 acres (2.7 km2) of second-growth redwood forest in a narrow stretch 11 miles (18 km) long on both banks of the Navarro River, from the town of Navarro to the river's confluence with the Pacific Ocean.
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=435
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navarro_River_Redwoods_State_Park
Navarro River Redwoods State Park is a state park in Mendocino County, California, consisting of 660 acres (2.7 km2) of second-growth redwood forest in a narrow stretch 11 miles (18 km) long on both banks of the Navarro River, from the town of Navarro to the river's confluence with the Pacific Ocean.
Navarro River
Redwoods
State Park
Our Mission
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.
Wind through Anderson
Valley’s grapevines and oak
woodlands into the towering
trees of Navarro River
Redwoods State Park
along the sparkling river.
California State Parks supports equal access.
Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities who
need assistance should contact the park
at (707) 937-5804. This publication can be
made available in alternate formats. Contact
interp@parks.ca.gov or call (916) 654-2249.
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
Discover the many states of California.™
SaveTheRedwoods.org/csp
Navarro River Redwoods State Park
Highway 128, two miles east of Hwy. 1
Albion, CA 95410
(707) 937-5804
© 2011 California State Parks
O
n the highway to Navarro River Redwoods
State Park, the rolling hills of the Anderson
Valley drop you, unsuspecting, into a long,
shady tunnel of magnificent second-growth
redwood groves. Twisting two-lane Highway
128 runs through the park and parallels the
Navarro River’s north bank.
The park’s 660 acres lie along a 14-mile
contiguous river corridor, preserving an
intricately connected web of aquatic and
terrestrial plants and wildlife.
PARK HISTORY
Native People
The Pomo people occupied much of what
is now Mendocino County for thousands of
years before Europeans arrived in California.
Some indigenous Pomo people lived
in a narrow strip along today’s Navarro
River, but most lived inland, east of the
“redwood belt.”
The Mitom Pomo inhabited an area
near today’s town of Willits called Little
Lake Valley. The Mitom Pomo traded with
the Mato Pomo, who lived north of the
Noyo River. The Mato Pomo had access to
obsidian for making tools such as scrapers,
arrowheads and spearheads.
The Navarro area provided well for the
Mitom Pomo. Plant foods, fish, shellfish and
game animals were plentiful. Grasses, roots
and other vegetation provided materials
to create magnificent Pomo baskets, now
gracing museum collections the world over.
Navarro Beach at the mouth of the Navarro River
Steelhead trout
In June 1857, the Mitom Pomo were sent
to a newly opened reservation (now the
town of Fort Bragg). The reservation lasted
less than ten years. During this time, the
native population was drastically reduced by
disease, loss of land and food resources, and
the hostility of European settlers.
NATURAL HISTORY
Beginning in the 1850s, heavy logging by
the lumber and sawmill trade devastated
the area’s old-growth redwoods. In 1987, the
Save the Redwoods League purchased this
fragmented riverfront acreage to link its open
spaces and then donated it to the State.
These second-growth redwoods—sprouted
from the cut stumps of the original trees—
grew rapidly in height and girth where the
Navarro’s floodwaters nourished their growth.
Sedges, used as basket material by the Mitom
Pomo, line the channel banks. Redwood sorrel
blankets the forest floor with heart-shaped
leaflets and pink flowers in the spring. Dense
stands of western sword ferns, salal and wild
huckleberry add to the riverfront beauty.
The mouth of the Navarro River mingles
fresh water and salty ocean water to support
a great variety of wildlife, including harbor
seals, river otters and California sea lions.
Mountain lions may be spotted at dusk
or dawn seeking a resident raccoon or a
black-tailed deer.
RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
The park is far enough inland to have warm
summers and cool, wet winters. Occasionally the
river overflows in winter, inundating the beach
and campgrounds.
Water Activities—Swimming and wading
are popular in summer. In winter and spring,
kayakers and canoeists enjoy the peace and
quiet of the river and ocean.
Camping—At Paul M. Dimmick Campground,
26 sites sit in a redwood grove near the river.
Ten primitive sites at Navarro Beach
Campground have chemical toilets with no
running water. Camping is first-come, firstserved, with no reservations.
Fishing—Steelhead fishing along the Navarro
River is excellent during the months when fishing
Captain Fletcher’s Inn
Captain Fletcher’s Inn
Captain Charles Fletcher became the first
European settler in the town of Navarro at
the mouth of the Navarro River. Fletcher
built an inn in the early 1860s with San
Franciscans Thomas and James Kennedy.
Captain Fletcher’s Inn housed sailors waiting
for lumber ships to be loaded and unloaded
at the Navarro Mill.
Later, Fletcher and James Kennedy
established Mendocino’s first ship-building
enterprise, constructing schooners to haul
logs from the Mendocino coast.
The inn later became a stagecoach stop, a
home for unmarried lumber mil