Boating, Fishing, and Travel Information for Trinidad Harbor, CA

A pier with a bait and tackle shop, and restaurant is located in the bight W of Little Head. A small marine railway near the foot of the pier is used for launching and retrieving small craft up to 25 feet long and 8½ feet wide. A beach boat launch is located on the E side of the marine railway. A water taxi is available during the summer months and a floating pier is provided to access the main pier during the months of May through September. Gasoline, marine supplies, and ice are available in Trinidad, a town on the N shore of the cove. The harbor monitors VHF-FM channel 78.
Navigation:
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Trinidad Head is nearly 39 miles NNE of Cape Mendocino and 17.5 miles N of the entrance to Humboldt Bay. It rises to a height of 380 feet. The sides are steep and covered with chaparral. From N or S the head is generally raised as a dark, round-topped island. Near the N end it is joined to the mainland by a narrow neck, from the S side of which Little Head, a rocky knoll 125 feet high, projects into Trinidad Harbor. The white cross 200 yards N of the S point of Trinidad Head is fairly prominent.
Trinidad Head Light (41°03’07″N., 124°09’05″W.), 196 feet above the water, is shown from a lighthouse near the SW side of the head; a sound signal is at the light. A lighted whistle buoy is 1 mile W of the head.
Trinidad Harbor, a small cove E of Trinidad Head, affords shelter in NW weather, but is dangerous in W or S weather. The cove is small and is further constricted by several rocks, and, as a rule, there is always a swell even in N weather. It is used by fishing boats to a considerable extent during the summer, even though the holding ground is only fair. A white lighthouse structure, a memorial containing the original oil-burning light used at Trinidad Head until 1948, is at the center of the bluff on the N side of the harbor.