After a couple of days in the national park part of the area, we headed a little south from our campsite to Patrick’s Point State Park. It was a lot smaller than any of the state or national Redwood Parks, but our gentleman friend of the air quotes recommended it, so we thought we would check it out.
Being the cheapskates we are, we parked just outside the park and walked in so as not to have to pay for parking. The park was up on a bluff for the most part and as we moved toward the ocean, fog started to appear. We wound up first on a lower bluff where Mike could scramble on rocks and I watched the surf crash onto rocks as the fog really rolled in. We soon couldn’t see the bigger bluffs nearby and I started to get cold without the sun. We meandered down the shore a ways and found the sun again, as well as access to a tidepool area. Unfortunately, we got there close to high tide, but we made our way down anyway and were so happy that we did. We did not get to see anemones and other fun creatures, but we did see find an amazing area full of beautiful and diverse rocks. We spent a long time there admiring and finding the best rocks. The sun came back out and we lounged on a rock drying our feet (and my pant legs) and taking in the majesty of a very round seal.
When we got back to our campground, we decide that we had to check out the local beach nearby after seeing that it was named Agate Beach. Here, we joined others slowly wandering along, neck craned down toward the beach, intermittently squatting to find the best rocks. From here on out, we are stopping at every Agate Beach we see on a map.
The next day took us back north the Redwood National and State parks to do one more hike before we left the area. This time we were a little further inland; there were fewer old growth redwoods, but the hike was lovely nonetheless.
The next day, we headed south, but first we made one more stop at Agate Beach to collect a few more rocks.