Houda Point / Camel Rock

Camel Rock holds the largest breeding colony of Leach's storm petrel on the north coast. Pigeon guillemots, western gulls, pelagic cormorants and black oystercatchers breed on it too, and the Trinidad Coastal Land Trust runs a community science program that monitors them. Most people who stop here are looking at the two humps that give the sea stack its name, not at what's nesting on it.

The land trust owns and maintains the place outright, which surprises people who assume State Parks or the county. It's an eight-acre beach park off Scenic Drive south of Trinidad, with three official trails, kept up by volunteers, free and open to the public.

Surfers use it. How well it works as a break is another matter — the land trust calls Houda Point "a paradise for surfers, beach goers, birders and painters alike" and says surfers flock here during low tide swells, and that is the extent of what any official source says. No wave height, break type or skill level is published anywhere. The Camel Rock surf camera that once updated every ten seconds has been out of service since June 2023, so you can't check conditions remotely either.

Access improved substantially in 2022: ADA parking, accessible pathways, a kiosk, picnic tables and benches, paid for by local donations and the California State Coastal Conservancy. The trails down to the beach aren't described as accessible. Parking is described as plentiful.

One thing to disregard — the land trust's page still carries a notice about limited access starting the week of 7 February 2022. That work finished years ago.

Come at low tide. It's when the beach opens up and when the surfers turn out.