Virtual Guidebook to the Northern California Coast and Coast Ranges
Bear Harbor
Sinkyone Wilderness State Park California

A good dirt road leads south from Needle Rock to the last group of campsites, at Railroad Gulch. The South Lost Coast Trail starts here and follows an old railroad grade down to Bear Harbor.

Bear Harbor is an unsheltered cove, but in the heroic early days of logging it was one of the "dog hole" ports. A railroad was built over the mountains from the Eel River and out onto a pier, to load bundles of planks and shingles onto sailing ships bobbing in the surf. Now all that remains is two iron railroad rails sticking out from the edge of the cliff.