Needle Rock, Sinkyone Wilderness State Park, Lost Coast.

Now this was quite a drive. Needle Rock Visitor's Center in the Sinkyone Wilderness is probably only about 15 or 16 miles south of Shelter Cove. So why would it take 90 minutes to get there?

Narrow, winding, twisting dirt bumpy roads with hairpin turns going through forests and rocky cliff areas.

But look. This is what you get. Untamed wilderness.

Or was it untamed?

The Lost Coast had almost been ruined. Due to California's population boom in the late 1800s, demand soared for forest products of redwood. Loggers looked to North Coast forests, watered by fog drip and 100, sometimes even 200 inches of rain a year in places. Much of the redwood groves in the Lost Coast were chopped down and sent down to San Francisco and elsewhere at ports such as Needle Rock and Bear Harbor, where we'd later go.

Eventually, when logging redwood was no longer as profitable, the state and national park stepped in, purchasing large swathes of wilderness. Here where we were, the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park began acquisition of this land in 1975, purchasing it from Usal Redwood Company.

And it was logging companies, not the state park, that had hacked roads into the steep, rocky terrain to get their timber to San Francisco. But because of the absence of any decent roads, it's still extremely isolated, quiet, and now once again, quite unperturbed by people.