I should confess, I’m a person who sees the picture and books the tickets. There is a trend on Instagram: write long stories to the post to get more of everything. Nah, I will read the caption if only I will fall in love with the photo. The most fabulous mysteries for me are the photos without location. Oh, I would dig Internet just to know where the shot was taken.
How did I find the photo that leads me to the Stornetta? Oh, I don’t remember. But I knew that I must see the place for myself.
The part of the coast between Point Arena Lighthouse and Point Arena Cove is a designated coastal Monument. We’ve been at Point Arena light few years ago but never hiked the trail.
This time we stopped at Point Arena to visit the lighthouse at first. The bluff was covered with wildflowers.
We took a tour and climb up to the top of the lighthouse tower. The view was amazing!

The trailhead starts from the small dirt parking (more a pull-out) near lighthouse road. Every my visit I see the lot almost full though I think most of the visitors do just a short walk to the nearest sea arch.
But if you follow the trail or just walk along the bluff you see a lot: more arches, sinkholes, and stunning view over the hills, coast and the lighthouse.

If you follow the trail, it will end at the Point Arena City Hall. The last part of the path is more secluded. But there we spot harbor seals. And they saw us. One of them even followed us 🙂
The last mile of the trail has an excellent viewpoint of the Point Arena Cove and its pier.

We stayed at the hotel in the cove. The place is small and remote. The fishing pier is the main attraction here, but there is also a restaurant and tap room. But we didn’t see a lot of visitors that day.
By the end of the day, skies were almost entirely covered with clouds, and there wasn’t a magnificent sunset. But I suppose sunsets in the cove should be marvelous!

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