Just a short way farther north from the Point Arena Pier is the turnoff, Lighthouse Road, that leads to the Point Arena Lighthouse. There were plenty of tempting sights urging us to pause along this narrow 2-mile road, but we carried on to the end of the cul-de-sac and parked. The first thing I noticed was not the lighthouse itself — which is gorgeous even at a distance — but the fence (above) made from slices of rock turned on their ends. I’ve already shared photos of the actual lighthouse in my earlier post, Big Ocean.

The good news is that there are plenty of protected areas in the vicinity, both on land and sea. Just off shore sits the Sea Lion Cove State Marine Conservation Area; and Lighthouse Road borders the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands, part of the California Coastal Monument. If that latter name sounds familiar, you may be recalling the episode of California’s Golden Parks that I featured back in July 2018 in which Huell Howser visited another portion of this extensive coastal monument.

Point Arena may be a small town, but I still feel like we only touched the surface of this beautiful part of the Northern California coastline.

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, on Highway 1 in Point Arena