The lake is gone, leaving a gravel lakebed
This park is in an attractive valley among conifer-covered hills, next to what used to be a small lake. The elegant Benbow Inn, which opened in 1926, overlooks the former lake. The inn, lake, and nearby golf course were all built by the Benbow family as a resort for wealthy San Franciscans.
The park was created in 1958 at the Benbow family’s request, to protect the resort’s surroundings from development. But in 1969 a four-lane highway was built anyway, right through the middle of the campground and past the inn’s otherwise splendid terrace.
In 2017, the dam that created the lake was removed to save on maintenance and seismic retrofitting costs and to protect salmon, leaving a less-than-scenic gravel lakebed. The park’s name, which used to be “Benbow Lake State Recreation Area”, was changed to just “Benbow State Recreation Area”.
Although the inn with its nice restaurant is still popular, the park’s day use area is deserted; on a recent Labor Day weekend, it only had two visitors. At least the campground, which was closed from 2013–2017 due to budget cuts, is once again open between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Climbs through dry-looking second-growth uplands, then descends through fairly scenic old growth to a partially-logged flat with a few big redwoods.
© 2010, 2017, 2019 David Baselt
