A great weekend getaway: Mendocino's Big River

  Mendocino's Big River (Photo by David Russell

Here’s a boating adventure just three hours by car from The Bay Area but it will take you a world away. It’s the Big River in Mendocino County, on Highway 1. (Click here for a Google Map)

Big River is a tidal estuary, as well as a river, running East some 50 miles from its mouth at the Pacific Ocean. It is part of a complex of State lands encompassing 30,000 acres of parks and second-growth forest, including redwoods. It is home to otters, bears, beavers, mountain lions, bobcats, Coho salmon and steelhead, harbor seals, and more than 100 species of birds, including a dozen raptors. The Russian Gulf State Park is about two miles north, and the Van Damme State Park about 2 miles south.

Big River is 100 feet wide at its mouth on the Pacific, but it narrows quickly as you move inland to fewer than 25 feet across in spots. For most of its length, towering redwoods, moss-draped oaks, flowering hardwoods, ferns, and wild azaleas crowd down to the water’s edge, but every once in a while there are spots where you can tie up to the shore and spread a blanket for a picnic. There are lots of snags in the water from sunken trees, logs left over from discontinued logging operations, and other estuarine flotsam.

There is a parking lot and launch ramp at the mouth, just off the highway where you can launch your own trailered boat. If you don’t want to bring your own, or don’t have a boat, you can rent canoes and kayaks, or sign up for tours, at Catch-a-Canoe on the beach. (Photo below by edugreen)

There is a 5 mph speed limit on Big River, so most of the traffic is paddle-powered. The river can accommodate powered dinghies and inflatables so long as the speed limit, enforced by park rangers, is observed. It is a beautiful waterway for going slow.

Catch-a-Canoe rents a unique downwind sailing outrigger canoe. The prevailing wind is westerly, so you can sail downwind up the estuary most of the time.. When the wind is blowing hard the canoes can reach speeds of 10-15 knots, according to Catch-a-Canoe’s manager, Rick Hemmings. “No sailing skill is needed,” Rick says. “The canoes cannot tip over, and the sails automatically furl when you paddle into the wind coming back.”Catch-A-Canoe runs guided tours on a larger outrigger, including what it calls a “bioluminescence tour” at night.

Because Big River is tidal for the first 8 miles of its length, paddlers must pay attention to the tides. Paddling against a tide, especially coming back when you would be paddling into the wind from the Pacific, would be arduous at best, and at times, could be impossible. You can find tide charts for Big River here. Ideally, you would plan to go up river on an incoming tide, and back on an outgoing one.  A good strategy would be to fly uprived under sail at the start of an ebb tide, and then paddle back with the ebb.

Because Big River is so close to the Bay Area, it is reasonable to take day trips. If you want to spend more than a day, there are many small inns and B&Bs in the Mendocino area. The closest one to Big River is the Stanford Inn, located right at the mouth. Camping is available at both State Parks, with reservations. You can make reservations for either campground here.

You can combine your boating excursion with hiking. There is a virtual smorgasbord of trails in the Mendocino Headlands State Park and other public lands along Big River -- from the coast deep into the interior.