Shelter Cove, CA

Shelter Cove sits where the King Range drops into the Pacific on California's Lost Coast, a Humboldt County CDP organized around a cove, a small airstrip, and the ocean. The Sinkyone people lived here for thousands of years before settlers arrived in the 1850s. The coast also has a hard maritime story: in 1907 the passenger steamer Columbia collided with the schooner San Pedro in dense fog near the cove. Black Sands Beach, the airport, and the boat launch are the practical markers today, but the older map still matters. Shelter Cove is a place where the shoreline is both the address and the history.