Hiking NorCal- Dillon Beach

Having spent 0.0000001% of my life in Northern California, when I found myself there recently I knew I had to take advantage and hike some trails.

Dillon Beach is a tough place to get to, you have to have a sharp sense of which country roads to go on (or a helpful GPS) as you wind your way through cow country and then come upon the spectacularly rugged nature of the California coast. This hike takes place in a private community section of DB but I don't think you will have any trouble parking at the trailhead.

Speaking of the trailhead, this one had the most massive disclaimer of liability I have ever seen:

I do have to give it to the sign (as much as I give "it" to any inanimate object), several members in our hiking party slipped on the wet grass and took a tumble as we made our way to the cliff's edge. There is nothing particularly dangerous about the trail

but it is slick due in part to the wet NorCal weather and due in part to the cows roaming the landscape. I am not sure how they do it but those cows know how to make a trail slick.

The trail is only about 0.50 miles down to the cliffs. If you want, you can follow the cow trail North for a bit longer hike but this one is a short un. What it lacks in terms of length, it makes up for in views. The views are simply spectacular as we will see in a moment.

Before we get to the views, I spent some time poking around the landscape leading to the views. To my mind's eye, it was very reminiscent of Ireland with the green hills and the random rocks sticking up everywhere.

There are some goat trails that lead up and amongst the rocks and I suggest you spend some time up there, its really interesting scrambling.

Ok, ok, I know, you all want to see the pics of the ocean right? Well Dillon Beach did not disappoint.

There was the bay:

There were cool oceanic things happening:

There were rugged cliffs:

Beautiful colors hanging on in hardscrabble places:

and Sea Creatures!

So yes, this blog post is short on trail descriptions on long on pictures but sometimes the shortest trails are the best, no? Since this trail had no name, I have decided to name it The Cow Paradise Trail. While the CPT is located in a private community, I believe you can access it, here is a rough map of the area discussed above.


View Larger Map

I am a huge fan of the ruggedness of NorCal and this short hike gives it to you in spades. Check it out if you are in the hood!