Rim Trail

From Palmer?s Point to Agate Beach Campground is 4 miles round tripThough Patrick?s Point State Park is positioned in the heart of the redwoods, other trees?Sitka Spruce, Douglas fir, and red alder?predominate on the park?s rocky promontories. The state park takes its name from Patrick Beegan, who homesteaded this dramatic, densely forested headland in 1851.

For hundreds of years the Yurok spent their summers in the Abalone Point area of the headlands. The Yurok gathered shellfish and hunted sea lions. A variety of game and a multitude of berries that were plentiful in the surrounding forest.

The area now called Patrick?s Point also had some spiritual significance to the native people. According to the Yurok belief, Sumig, the spirit of the porpoises, retired to Patrick?s Point when humans began populating the world.

Rim Trail follows an old Indian pathway over the park?s bluffs. Spur trails lead to rocky points that jut into the Pacific and offer commanding views of Trinidad Head to the south and Big Lagoon to the north.

Directions to trailhead: Patrick?s Point State Park is located thirty miles north of Eureka and five miles north of Trinidad. Exit Highway 101 on Patrick?s Point Drive and follow this road to the park. Once past the park entrance station, follow the signs to Palmer Point.

Sumeg Village

Visit the recreated Yurok village - "Sumeg" - consisting of traditional style family houses, a sweat house, changing houses, a redwood canoe, and a dance house. The village is used by the local Yuroks for education of their youth and to share their culture with the public. Adjacent to Sumeg Village is a native plant garden where you will find native plants that were used for baskets, food and medicine.

Native American Plant Garden

In 1997, this garden was established as a Native American plant garden which has plants that were used by the local Yuroks. The plantings in the garden are representative of the plants used for medicinal, basketry, substance, and ceremonial purposes. The Native American Plant Garden is located just east of and adjacent to the Yurok Indian Village.

Trails (no dogs on trails or beach)

Six miles of trail lace throughout this diverse park, many with spectacular vistas. Hiking the Rim Trail you may see a harbor seal, sea lion and if you are lucky a gray whale. Octopus Tree Trail loops through a grove of old-growth Sitka spruce. Two all-access trails to coast overlooks are also available.

A couple of short, steep trails make it possible to reach the tops of Ceremonial Rock and Lookout Rock, old sea stacks that were left high and dry when the ocean receded. In some parts of the park, plant life is so luxuriant that hikers moving along the trail are sheltered and isolated by walls of vegetation.

The park is 25 miles north of Eureka and 56 miles south of Crescent City.