The Lost Coast is the most remote stretch of California's coastline — a 25-mile section where the King Range mountains drop so steeply into the Pacific that building a coastal highway was impossible. The road engineers gave up and routed US-101 inland, leaving this corridor of black sand beaches, sea stacks, and wild hillsides essentially unchanged.
The main access point from Garberville is via the town of Redway (three miles north) then west on Briceland Road to Shelter Cove, the only settlement on the Lost Coast. The drive takes about an hour and ends at a small airstrip, a boat launch, and a quiet community at the base of the cliffs. From Shelter Cove you can walk south on the black sand beach, watching for black bears that come down to the shoreline at low tide. The King Crest Trail starts here too, climbing sharply up into the mountains for serious hikers who want the ridge views.