Humboldt Coastal Nature Center

Charles and Rachel Stamps built the building in 1985 as their retirement home, using an earth-shelter kit design, and roofed it with a living layer of native dune plants. They liked sharing the place and its beach access with family and friends. After their deaths the family trust sold part of the property to Friends of the Dunes in 2007, renovation began in 2010, and the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center opened to the public in July 2011. Stamps Lane still carries the family name.

Friends of the Dunes describes the holding as roughly 120 acres — its nature center page says 122, its printed area map and guide says 113. Ten named trails run from the building over the dunes to the ocean, among them Wildberries, Back Dune, Waterline and the William Weaver Ridge Trail, which climbs to a high viewpoint and dead-ends there. No mileages are published for any of them.

A beach wheelchair is available for free checkout at 220 Stamps Lane, built to roll over sand. The catch is timing: the building is open Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, so that's the only window to collect it. Friends of the Dunes doesn't publish a booking procedure. Call 707-444-1397 ahead if you're driving any distance for it.

Trails and restrooms stay open every day during daylight, which matters because the building's hours are short. The restrooms are part of the green-building demonstration — low-flow fixtures, solar hot water, radiant heat, passive venting.

Park at the main Stamps Lane lot. There is no parking at the Barr trailhead or on Lupin Avenue, the separate 3.6-acre parcel in Manila.

Some trails are shared with horses and some are pedestrian-only. The map asks you to stay on designated routes.