Fort Bragg’s newest park is situated atop the bluffs overlooking Fort Bragg’s dramatic, rocky Pacific shore. Its northern section was opened in 2015, extending the Pacific Coast Trail from Pudding Creek at the northern end of town down to Otsuchi Point. It includes a stairway down the bluffs to Glass Beach.
In 2016, the southern section of the park was opened. It comprises 2.3 miles of trails stretching from Noyo Harbor to the Crow’s Nest, the charming visitors center (replete with touch tank aquarium) for the Noyo Center for Marine Science. City officials expect to complete the center section of about 1.3 miles of trail connecting the northern and southern sections by November 2017. With the addition of the central portion, the park will total about 106 acres, and the Pacific Coast Trail will run without interruption all the way through Fort Bragg, connecting north of town across the Pudding Creek Trestle to MacKerricher Park and south across the Noyo River Bridge to Pomo Bluffs Park: all together a distance of 7.5 miles.
The trail provides the first public access to Fort Bragg’s rocky coast since the 1800s. Views are spectacular, and Noyo Headlands Park has already gained the enviable reputation of being one of the best places anywhere to view stunning sunsets.
The park was reclaimed from an industrial mill site owned by Georgia-Pacific. Much of the site was covered with asphalt, which was removed, and the entire area was restored to its natural state. The project has cost millions of dollars, provided largely by Prop. 84 funds and the California Coastal Conservancy.
WHERE: Access to the park is via Elm Street at the north end, and Cypress Street at the south. Parking and admission are free, and the park is open 24 hours a day. (google map)
Next Up: #37 – Noyo Center for Marine Science – The Crow’s Nest