Trails weave through towering redwood groves to a scintillating 11-mile-long section of isolated coast called Gold Bluffs Beach. The park’s inland sections are kept lush and fertile by heavy winter rainfall and the landscapes reach their peak at Fern Canyon, a moss-covered floor enclosed by 60-ft high walls of fern reached from the main coastal trail.

What really separates the park from others in the area, however, is the herd of Roosevelt elk, which inhabits the grasslands lying between the redwood groves and the ocean. Stocky and lugubrious creatures, some of the elk graze within viewing distance of Hwy-101 and many more can be seen studiously ignoring the humans who walk the coastal trails.