The King Range National Conservation Area (NCA) is a spectacular meeting of land and sea as mountains thrust straight out of the surf with King Peak (4,088 feet) only 3-miles from the ocean. The King Range NCA encompasses 68,000 acres along 35 miles of California’s north coast. The landscape was too rugged for highway building, giving the remote region the title of California’s Lost Coast. It is the Nation's first NCA, designated in 1970.

King Range National Conservation Area

Black Sands Beach, located in Shelter Cove CA, marks the southern terminus of the most well-known section of the world famous Lost Coast Trail. From the overlook visitors are treated to what is widely considered to be the most iconic view of the Lost Coast. On clear days an expansive view of eighteen miles of rugged and diverse coastal landscape can be seen stretching north to the horizon. Hammered by winter storms of up to forty-foot waves and two-hundred inches of rainfall, the beaches, creeks, bluffs, forests, and prairies are in constant flux.

Black Sands Beach

Mal Coombs Park, located in Shelter Cove CA, is home to the historic Cape Mendocino Lighthouse. Constructed in 1868, the lighthouse originally served as the beacon for Cape Mendocino (approximately 50 miles north of Shelter Cove). It was relocated to Mal Coombs Park in 1998 after being decommissioned. Though no longer operational, today it serves as a historic site for visitors, and a reminder of the rich history and rugged coastlines of Humboldt County. 
The native plan garden surrounding the base of the lighthouse is a guiding light towards what the Bureau of Land Management and its community partners hope to achieve through their restoration efforts along the scenic bluffs of Mal Coombs Park.

King Range National Conservation Area

California

3 chronologs managed by King Range National Conservation Area

Tide Pool/Seals

Black Sands Beach

Mal Coombs Park

About King Range National Conservation Area

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