Unlocking the gate

A locked gate bars access to North Beach, but the Harbor Commission may decide to allow some vehicles in. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

The slim crescent of sand north of the boat basin and south of Shoreline RV Park may soon be open to both businesses and public citizens to remove sand, driftwood and kelp — if they get a permit.

When it meets tonight, the Crescent City Harbor Commission will consider allowing vehicles back on the stretch of beach. Access was closed off years ago after the RV park complained about the noise from 4-wheel-drive vehicles.

Harbormaster Richard Young said that even if the commission does open the beach to vehicles, it will still be necessary to get a permit to drive there.

“The beach is state land so we need a permit from the State Land Commission,” Young said.

Currently the beach isn’t open to vehicles, but Young said people can get the silt discharged by the dredge, which is stored in the dredge ponds directly above North Beach.

North Beach is north of the boat basin and south of Shoreline RV Park. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

The beach, which you have to work to find, is reached by turning west on Sunset Circle at the Elk Valley Road and Highway 101 intersection. Once it crosses 101, Elk Valley Road becomes Sunset Circle.

The pitted, seldom-used road has an unmarked entrance to the harbor’s dredge ponds, which is also the access to the beach.

At high tide there’s practically no beach there at all.

“We did complain at one point because they used to 4-wheel down there,” said RV park manager Rae Blasingame.

Blasingame isn’t worried about the possibility that allowing people to drive on the beach for sand mining might bring back the 4-wheeling contingent.

Neither is Young.

“It’s not like we’re going to just open access completely. People are going to have to get a permit and we will most likely have to open the gate.”

But Young cautioned he wasn’t sure what the Harbor Commission was going to do.

“I don’t care,” Blasingame said with a laugh, referring to the possibility of more access. “The beach has got to have something to do. Most times it’s pretty empty except during the Fourth of July.”

North Beach provides a unique vantage from which to view the harbor, B Street Dock and Battery Point Lighthouse, and its lack of traffic can make it seem almost private.

The harbor dredge ponds, which the access road skirts, reflect the sky and seem like small wetlands.

While not knowing  what will happen at tonight’s Harbor Commission meeting, Young speculated how it might work.

“People, whether commercial or private, would have to have a permit from us,” Young said referring to the fact that the state permit gives the harbor the right to issue separate permits per user. “I believe the only charge would be for commercial use, because we have to pay the state for any commercial sand mining.”

Young said that the harbor most likely wouldn’t make any money off the sand mining.

“The permit is really for driving on the beach,” Young said. “And people will be able to take driftwood, kelp and sand.”