Private Trails
PLEASE NOTE: All Sea Ranch roads and most trails are PRIVATE, unless designated as public trails. Visitors NOT staying on The Sea Ranch must park in the public access parking areas on Highway 1 and stay only on the public trails and beaches. If staying at The Sea Ranch, be sure to display the tag supplied to you by your host on your vehicle's rear-view mirror or dashboard. Failure to do so will subject your vehicle to citation and immobilization.
Trail use is a privilege. Follow these rules.
Respect the people, the land, and the sea.
Protect wildlife, plants, and trees.
Safeguard streams, tidepools, beaches, and ponds.
Honor the property and privacy of others.
Go gently and stay on the trails.
Keep horses under control (if riding)
Keep dogs on leash. Do not leave their droppings/fecal waste on the trails.
No vehicles (including bicycles) on the Bluff Trail.
No smoking or campfires on the trails or the Commons.
Be responsible for your own safety.
Click here to download the PDF copy of the 2020 Trail Map Printed trail Maps are as well as a copy of the Rambles - A Guide to Selected Trails, are available at the Association office located at 975 Annapolis Road. You are welcome to visit the office, which is open every day 8:30 am to 5 pm, except Sunday, Monday, and major holidays. It's located at 975 Annapolis Road, just past the airstrip and the Cal Fire station.
Interpretive Trails
Currently, there are four interpretive trails with brochures describing historic and natural features.
The San Andreas Fault interpretive trail (pdf) is just above the Hot Spot on River Beach Road. It features 4 ridges with associated swales and hummocks (created by parallel faults), a sag pond, broken trees and displaced/recaptured drainage channels from 1906 and earlier earthquakes. The trail also features historical remnants from 1890’s logging of original ancient redwoods to explore (such as springboard notches and skid trails), as well as forest ecology of unique over story, understory and ground cover, as well as stump islands colonized by redwood sorrel (oxalis). Park at the Hot Spot and walk up River Beach Road to explore the trailhead.
The Monarch Glen interpretive trail (pdf) is on the west side of Highway 1 just north of milepost 56.06. Its trailhead is reached by walking along the cypress hedgerow northeast from One-Eyed Jacks. The trail brochure describes many plants, especially shrubs and trees, along with both branches of Monarch Creek, as well as birds and other wildlife. Several unusual examples of redwood growth are also featured, as well as old Ohlson ranch sheep sorting pens and a long and 18″deep trace of original ranch road, leading to one of the old red gates.
The Sag Pond interpretive guide (pdf) describes habitat, plants, and animals that might be found in the unique aquatic habitat of our eight sag ponds, and talks about the geologic processes that create the sag ponds. There are discussions of symbiotic relationships among plants that are found only in one place on The Sea Ranch. Five of the ponds are accessed by spur trails from other trails and from roads and feature the distinctive sag pond marker posts.
The Seascape Guide (pdf) describes sights along a section of the Bluff Trail from approximately Trail Marker 6 to TrailMarker 10, from just north of Galleons Reach to Navigators Reach. The guide describes many of the marine mammals and birds that may be seen along the shore, as well as geographical features. It describes the ecology of the coastal upwelling zone along our shore, and the California Coastal NationalMonument, which includes all the islands offshore of California.