North Coast Explorations: The Lighthouse Walk of Trinidad

Trinidad is very compact. As the crow flies, it's less than a mile from Trinidad Head Lighthouse to the freeway exit for the town. This will come in handy as we can just park and see everything we want today without a lot of driving.

Next to the foot of the town's pier are about a half dozen handicapped parking spots. We take the one closest to the pier, which is also the widest one, allowing us to deploy the lift to unload Tim.

There's a highly regarded seafood restaurant here, owned by the local Yuroc tribe. We'll come back and try that later. First, we're going for a hike.

Back at the entrance of this lot, there are accessible restrooms and what looks like the top of a lighthouse. This is actually a replica lighthouse, built in 1949, and now is a memorial to locals who were lost at sea.

A plaque with their names is attached to the back.

Next to this faux lighthouse is the trailhead for today's walk. We'll be heading out to the real lighthouse. The trail is about a mile and a half, each way.

A house sits here, overlooking the pier and the pretty bay. We find out it's a vacation rental. Not accessible, though, but you can see the details about it at this link. There's probably not a more picturesque place to stay in the area.

A few feet further on, a chain across the road blocks access. It's not locked, though, so I just unlatch it and let Tim through.

We stop for a minute to take in the view below.

Just a bit further up is an overlook to the beach on the other side of the point. Here is where the trail forks. A dirt path to the right and the paved (accessible) path to the left. They both meet up again later.

I should also mention that a lot of the trail (maybe a quarter mile) up to this point is rather steep. Tim had no trouble with his power chair but I can see manual chair users or their pushers having quite a go of it here.

We continue up the paved side, stopping now and again to take in the spectacular views of Trinidad Bay.

We're almost to the end, where the lighthouse is, and the last 50 feet or so of trail is loose gravel. Tim finds it easier to roll on the adjacent lawn.

The lighthouse is only open to the public for a few hours one Saturday a month, which is not today. It's rather small by lighthouse standards, only about 20 feet tall, so we take a few pictures and take in the view.

Going down is much easier than going up. We build up a bit more appetite by walking out to the end of the pier, waving goodbye to some fishermen as they head out on an afternoon party boat.

The Seascape restaurant sits right at the edge of the beach and we get a great window table in the patio.

I'm not much of a seafood lover so I get by with a bacon grilled cheese sandwich.

Tim ops for the fish 'n chips...

...and my wife goes for the crab salad and clam chowder.

It's all very good, satisfying, and relaxing.

Afterwards, we go back to the cabin, pop open some wine, and enjoy heaps of junk food while watching stand-up comedy on the inn's Tubi channel.

Tomorrow, we'll take a little drive up to Oregon. We'll see you then.

Darryl Musick
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