In a state as heavily populate as California, The Lost Coast has a name whose image is as dramatic and romantic as any other.

California's Lost Coast undoubtedly qualifies as a dramatic landscape. It stretches roughly 80 miles along a rugged, lightly trafficked coast, edged by a dozen peaks rising more than 2,000 feet, crowned by the 4,087-foot King’s Peak. More than 24 streams cascade down deep, steeply walled canyons in a territory so jagged; highway builders prospected the land but headed elsewhere. Four roads reach this Wild West coast, two are one-lane dirt and all are twisting and steep.

            Whether the Lost Coast qualifies as romantic depends upon your point of view. Will you still like it when you're walking on miles of shifting sand or over high majestic ridges? Do you like to travel in a backpack? Can you sacrifice the simple pleasures of the modern city life? Tables, chairs, hot showers and beds are all in very short supply along the Lost Coast, and reservations at Shelter Cove’s Tides Inn can be hard to come by.

This California Coastal Trail runs the entire length of the Lost Coast, approximately 64 miles of trails. This trail first passes along a marathons length in miles of wilderness beach in King Range National Conservation Area.

 It is here in some places you have firm footing with dirt road or trails to lead your way. In a few places you'll be scrambling over slippery rocks, but most of the way you walk on beach sand, taunt and firm in places while miserably soft in others. The trail then leaves the beach to follow a paved road four and a half miles over a 2,000-foot high ridge. The “Alternate Route” is both steeper and harder to traverse. Leaving the road, a hiker takes to the high country because no continuous route exists along the coast where cliffs rise as high as 1,000 feet at any time. The collective elevation gain is 8,000 feet, with even more elevation loss. Fortunately you never climb more than 1,450 feet before a major descent saves your countless breaths. A bit over half way along the Lost Coast, winding through picturesque coastal terrain, one finds Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. With only 500 feet of elevation change, this is a welcome rest-bit.

The remote and often rugged Lost Coast offers North America's largest span of pristine beach and shoreline on the Pacific Coast outside of Alaska and Canada. Public lands here include 60,000-acre King Range National Conservation Area and 7,400-acre Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. These parks stretch a total of forty miles along the coast. If you study the maps however, you'll see that the geographic region of the Lost Coast extends another twenty-four miles north to Centerville Beach, held mostly in private ranch lands, and sixteen miles farther to Hardy Creek. Altogether, California's Lost Coast sprawls a phenomenal eighty miles along the shore of the nation's most populous state!

The United States Federal Government first recognized the area's remarkable scenic often overlooked biological value in 1929 when it withdrew public domain lands here from sale. In 1970, congress then created the King Range Conservation Area. Since the early 1970s, plans were in place to protect much of the King Range as designated wilderness. Unfortunately, the King Range remained unprotected for more than twenty years

This entire pristine wilderness is just footsteps from your stay at Shelter Cove’s Tides Inn. With pristine beaches meeting ancient colossal trees, your visit to the Lost Cost will be as memorable as the hospitable surroundings the Tides Inn provides.