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Posted in Northern California Nature February 12, 2017 by Jill S.

The One Place In Northern California That Must Be Seen To Be Believed

Don’t you love it when you get a closer look at something you think you know pretty well and it blows your mind? That’s how we felt when we examined this spot along the Northern California coastline. At first glance, it seems like a regular, beautiful, but not shocking, beach like the ones we’ve all been to a million times. We took a closer look, however, and what we found blew our minds!

There’s a 6,000 acre state park in Sonoma Called Salt Point State Park. It preserves about 6 miles of coastline and features about 20 miles of hiking trails.

The park is distinctive thanks to the constant impact of the waves on the sandstone.

As the name suggests, sandstone is formed by sand over long periods of time.

It looks like something out of a science fiction movie.

The large amounts of sandstone have created small cave-like features called tafoni, which can be found along the shore of Salt Point.

Tafoni are honeycomb like crevices that are formed when the ocean water crystallizes in the sandstone. The salt crystals cause some parts of the stone to hardened and others to soften.

The park was also the site of the first underwater preserves in California.

The distinctive sandstone rocks continue underwater providing a wide variety of habitats for marine organisms.

The area is popular for exploring tide pools. The rock formations are home to interesting sea creatures.

Some of them, like this one, are very unique and probably like nothing you ever thought to see on this planet or in your lifetime.

The diverse sea life here makes it popular for scuba diving and fishing, in addition to hiking, camping, and other recreation pursuits.

There's also some interesting things growing out of the water. We're not quite sure what this is or how it was formed, but it's pretty cool to look at!

The name of the park comes from the formation of salt crystals in the cracks and crevices of the rocky coastline.

The native Kashaya Pomo collected salt from this area for many years and used abalone chisels to scrape the salt off the rocks.

The sandstone from this area was also used to create the streets and buildings in San Francisco in the 1800s.

Brush and grasslands cover the ground here and local land dwelling wildlife includes black-tailed deer, raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, gray foxes, badgers and skunks.

Does this place seem like it is well worth a visit or what? Tell us what you think of this spectacular little state park, whether you have traveled there or not!

Jill S.

Jill is a freelance writer from a small Northern California town and lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains. If you have an idea for an Only In Northern California story, email her at jsanford@onlyinyourstate.com.