Jug Handle State Reserve and Caspar State Beach has hiker-only trails, no water, nonflush toilet..

From Highway 1, Jug Hangle SR is .1 mile north of Caspar turnoff.

Jug Handle State Natural Reserve is one of the best natural wonders for its unique "hand of time" seen in the unique staircase terraces created by changes in weather over thousands of years as the earth rose.   Located on  the Mendocino coast, the park features a 2.5-mile self-guided nature trail called The Ecological Staircase which explores five wave-cut terraces formed by glacier, sea and tectonic activity that created the face of the coast coast range.

Jug Handle State Reserve includes a five mile (round trip) Ecological Staircase Trail with terraces that span more than 250,000 years of history and geological activity. Overlooking the Jug Handle Bay, you can view a sea arch shaped by the waves of time. There's a pygmy forest and wildflowers in the spring such as California poppies and lupine, creating vibrant colors that shine after a rain when the flowers contain dew drops that reflect the colors of the rainbow from the breaking sun.
 

Five terraces represents unique stage progressions of distinct environments seen through material base from which the terraces were fashioned.  Although each terrace has evolved from the same material, each has been weathered for different lengths of time to look physically different from the next. Jughandle's terraces were caused by the movement of the earth's plates or crust along with the sea level changes during the Pleistocene. In the last several million years, the Mendocino coastline has risen slowly in relationship to the increase of the sea level from melting continental glaciers, creating sights rarely seen so clearly outside the desert regions of the world.

Each terrace took about 100,000 to rise before the next did so. One terrace consists of prairie; one above it is covered with pines; and another supports a unique pigmy forest with knee-high trees possibly several decades old.

The Reserve is located on the north coast of California about equal distance (five miles) between Fort Bragg and Mendocino in Mendocino County. Bisected by State Highway 1, the reserve stretches inland from the coast to Jackson State Forest, approximately three miles.
 

The water temperatures at the beaches here range between 50 and 55 degrees year round. See chart for nearby ocean and beach water temperatures

 

Mendocino State Parks & Beaches List:

 
Admiral William Standley (State Recreation Area)
Caspar Headlands (State Natural Reserve)
Caspar Headlands (State Beach) Mendocino
Greenwood (State Beach) Mendocino
Hendy Woods (State Park) Mendocino - You can book a campsite reservation for Hendy Woods State Park
Jug Handle (State Natural Reserve) Mendocino
MacKerricher (State Park) Mendocino - campsite reservation for MacKerricher State Park available
Mailliard Redwoods (State Natural Reserve) Mendocino V
Manchester (State Park) Mendocino - Campsites reservation for Manchester State Park
Mendocino Headlands (State Park) Mendocino
Mendocino Woodlands (State Park) Mendocino
Montgomery Woods (State Natural Reserve) Mendocino
Navarro River Redwoods (State Park) Mendocino
Point Cabrillo Light Station (State Historic Park) Mendocino
Reynolds (Wayside Campground) Mendocino
Russian Gulch (State Park) Mendocino - has campsite & reservation for Russian Gulch State Parks
Schooner Gulch (State Beach) Mendocino
Sinkyone Wilderness (State Park) Mendocino
Smithe Redwoods (State Natural Reserve) Mendocino
Standish-Hickey (State Recreation Area) Mendocino - Campsites are available by reservation for Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area
Van Damme (State Park) Mendocino - Campsite reservation for Van Damme State Park available
Westport-Union Landing (State Beach) Mendocino
 

or the other two parks turn west at Caspar and follow Point Cabrillo Drive.

Caspar State Beach is a small beach with creeks, vegetated bluffs and a meer .2 mile pocket opening to a bay that's square in shape. Sunbathing, swimming, fishing, scuba are a few activities. Caspar Headlands Reserve on top of the bluff and the beach are by permit at Mendo District Office, east off Highway 1, 2 miles north of Mendocino. You gotta have the map so you know where not to trespass on private land with housing developments. Some choose to skip a visit to this park because of the hassle of getting the pass.