Kid-Friendly Activities at Sea Ranch Abalone Bay!
Enjoy loads of fun, great adventures, and super economy for a fabulous family-focused vacation.
Kid-friendly, family-focused vacations are sure to please everyone at Abalone Bay vacation rental. We welcome all members of your family, including the little ones and furry ones with 4-feet. Abalone Bay provides unbreakable dishes, 2 highchairs, and has an enclosed courtyard.
Parents Please Note~
Please note that Abalone Bay opens to the ocean bluff beach trails. While the trails are set back from the step bluff’s drop, the trails are not necessarily kid-friendly. They do not have any fences or barriers to prevent falls. It is advisable when walking with your child that you hold their hands and your pets remain leashed as is required.
No Boredom Here!
There are plenty of kid friendly activities to do for everyone while vacationing with us no matter your age:
- Game room off the entryway provides a wide assortment of games, puzzles books, dvds, TV, art and journaling material for kids of all ages.
- Enjoy the privacy of our enclosed courtyard.
Parents please note we have a hot tub. Children must be watched at all times. The courtyard opens up to the ocean bluff trails with 330-40 feet cliffs without fencing or railing. - Visit the many parks
- Explore nature with your kids: visit tide pools, see wild animals up close: See- Discovery Tips for Sea Ranch Tide Pools and Tips to being a Good Steward of Sea Ranch Tide Pools
- Enjoy any of the 3 recreation centers. Ohlson Center is an easy 10-minute walk along the bluff trail or a quick drive to its parking lot. Also located at the Ohlson Center is the White Barn, the Sea Ranch Lending Library at the ranch house, and demonstration of native plants garden.
- Watch the whales swim by and view the Seal Rookery at Green Cove, just a few yards away from your backyard
- You will find maps to the trails and brochures to many great spots in our basket of “Experiences To Try & Places to Explore”
For weekly child-centered activities and businesses (books, toys, etc.), please check the activities section and business advertisements of the Independent Coast Observer (http://mendonoma.com/) weekly newspaper (printed edition available each Thursday late afternoon in Gualala supermarkets). Discover more activities in and around Gualala at The Gualala Arts website: https://gualalaarts.org/ and Redwood Coast Chamber: Sonoma to Mendocino http://www.redwoodcoastchamber.com/events
Visit the Sea Ranch Little Free Library
The Sea Ranch Foundation created a little free library for children’s books. It is located outside the Children’s Environmental Play Park. The library is located In the northeastern section of Sea Ranch: take Deer Trail to the Park, between Green Fern and White Tail.
If your child has finished a book from home and no longer wants to pack it back home we encourage your to bring your child to the Little Free Library and donate it there. Generous donors have filled the library shelves with a variety of beautiful, diverse, kids’ books.
The play ground next to the library is a sunny open place with safe and modern equipment that also serves as a great reading space once your child has tuckered out.
Kid-Friendly Activities If It Rains
We recommend for rainy-day these fun kid-friendly activities:
Read a good book in front of spectacular views.
Forgot yours? Then help yourselves to one of ours in the game room bookcase. Books are leveled for a wide range of children (and adults too).
Solve a jigsaw puzzle or enjoy a family game night! 
So many to choose from in stored away in the credenza of our new Game Room!
Bake a rainy-day treat. The kitchen has plenty of cooking appliances, tools & even cookbooks needed for a rainy-day bake-a-thon, including a child-friendly cookbook.
Journal and sketch of your time at Sea Ranch. Provided are pencils, pencil sharpener and your own personal journal books.
Surf the Internet. Using the free Wi-Fi, surf the web, or Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp friends, sharing what a terrific place Sea Ranch Abalone Bay is.
Jump into the hot tub. Why not? You’ll be wet anyway, and this way you’ll be toasty warm while doing it.
Take a walk in the rain along the 40 miles of trails in the Sea Ranch. Then take another walk to enjoy the rainbow.
Visit Gualala to shop in Cypress Village and explore the Gualala Arts Center.
Take in a movie in Point Arena at the Arena Theater.
Tour the Point Arena Lighthouse.
Most of all, be thankful for the rain!!
Trails for Hiking
There are ~50 miles of well-marked trails at The Sea Ranch. Walk the entire length of The Sea Ranch from the Lodge to Gualala Point Regional Park ~ 10 miles. Pomo Creek Trail loop is great for kids. Get your own Trails Map at the Association office and start to enjoy the trails. Interpretative (Self-Guided) Trails: (all guides are available at the Association office).
Trail maps are also available for our guests at Sea Ranch Abalone Bay.
- Monarch Glen Interpretive Trail
- San Andreas Fault Interpretive Trail
- Reading Our Seascapes (Sea Meadow Trail and portions of Bluff Trail. Guide is available at Trail Posts 6 & 10)
- Sag Ponds
Other local nearby trails worth visiting include:
- Stump Beach & Cove in Salt Point State Park (20 min south of Sea Ranch).
- Hiking in Salt Point State Park
- Kruse Rhododendron State Natural Reserve and hiking trails (15 min south of Sea Ranch on Kruse Ranch Road).
- Fort Ross Historic State Park (~ 25 min south of Sea Ranch on Highway 1) – visitors center, historic buildings, picnic area, sandy cove http://www.fortross.org/
Kid-Friendly Activities in the Water
Hot Spot on the Gualala River (wading, frogs, inner-tube floating, BBQ & picnic area)
The Hot Spot is located at the foot of River Beach Road on the Gualala River. This popular riverside picnic spot is deep in the redwoods, with picnic tables, barbecues, and a portable toilet. It serves as a refuge from coastal fog and wind. The river is shallow and warm here and welcoming for wading and inner tube floats. A wonderful spot for youngsters and birders. September seems to be the month for tiny frogs on the rocky beach.
Please note that the access road may be closed during the rainy season. Narrow two-way road.
Other Water Activities
- Tide Pools (Tide Pool Beach, TSRA Marine Preserve, & many other small areas)
- Three Recreation Centers for Swimming : Moonraker (south), Ohlson (central), and Del Mar (north)
- Swim Lessons ( June at Ohlson Pool)
- Schooner Gulch
- Bowling Ball Beach (at Schooner Gulch State Beach) is a long and scenic beach approximately 14 miles north of Gualala. The area offers marvelous geologic formations and wonderful locations for watching sunsets. Caution: The beach is often inaccessible at high tide. The staircase, which is more like a ladder is not easy to climb and may challenging, if not dangerous for little legs to go it alone.
- Arena Cove and Harbor (fishing boats, boat launching, restaurants, stores)
- Manchester Beach State Park (~ 25 minutes north of Gualala) – ~3.2 miles of a beautiful, curving, sandy beach.
- Rent canoes and kayaks at Adventure Rents for self-guided paddles along the Gualala River. They provide instruction for beginner boaters.
Fauna
Native Fauna –
- Harbor Seal Habitat Areas: Green Cove- just outside the backdoor and Tide Pool Beach
- Beach combing: Black Point, Pebble, Smuggler’s Cove, Ohlson, Stengel, Shell, Dune Drift, Walk On public beaches and trails
- Grazing sheep (variable locations on the Ranch)
- Bird and Deer Watching Gualala Point Island, Black & Bihler Points, the meadows, under our windows!
Sea Ranch Equestrian Center-
Occasionally you’ll view horse riders enjoying a stroll along the coastal bluff trail in front of Abalone Bay. Located on the east side of Highway 1, across from the Knipp-Stengel barn near mile marker 53.76. Sea Ranch residents, property owners, or renters may board their horses there. Contact barn manager Molly Smith at (707) 785-2639.
Bicycling
Bicycling the Annapolis-Stewarts Point Loop (~ 24 miles, strenuous and for experienced riders). Old Stage Road to Point Arena (17 miles, strenuous and for experienced riders); return via Hwy 1 (14 miles) or reverse your route. Please be sure to not only pack your bikes and also safety helmets as well.
Look for trail markers that designate that bikes may be ridden on the trails. Note that bikes may NOT be ridden on the bluff trails.
Playgrounds
Sea Ranch’s kid-friendly playground is One-Eyed Jack’s Playground and Picnic area (children’s play structures, Petanque court, Horseshoes)
A children’s playground fun enough for dads and granddads, a volleyball court, horseshoe pits, Petanque court, picnic tables, barbecues, and lots of room for active sports makes this a favorite with Sea Ranchers. Equipped for large gatherings, One-Eyed Jack’s is the site of the annual Volunteer Fire Department barbecue. Ranch history has been preserved in the old sheep-shearing sheds marking the site. Groups proposing to use the facility (e.g. for birthday parties or family reunions) are requested to phone the Association office for calendar information.
The Children’s Environmental Play Park
The Play Park was built by volunteers for the children of The Sea Ranch Apartments under the leadership of Matrix of Change. It is located between Green Fern and White Tail east of Deer Trail in the midst of a Sea Ranch area previously dedicated to employee housing, but now called “The Sea Ranch Apartments.” Play areas include a tot lot with apparatus, a larger play yard, a basketball half-court and, across a wooden bridge, a swath of green field with a backboard for soccer. As you enter the park you’ll also view the Little Free Library.
Tennis and Golf
Three Recreation Centers for Tennis:
- Moonraker Recreation Center (south), 35336 Moonraker Road – west of Highway 1 mile marker 51.06 on Moonraker Road,
- Ohlson Recreation Center (central and closest to Abalone Bay), 37600 Highway 1 – mile marker 53.76
- Del Mar Center (north) 40600 Leeward Road – Highway 1 mile marker 56.88 (WiFi available at DMC House and Hall)
- The Sea Ranch Golf Links (18 holes)
Library
Motto: “Donate, Borrow, and Return”
Hours: Daily 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Location: Ohlson Ranch House – Highway One, mile marker 53.76 at Ohlson Recreation Center.
The library, located in the Ohlson Ranch House, operates on the honor system- no cards, no librarians. It is managed completely by volunteers. You just need to return borrowed books within two weeks to keep them in circulation.
If you brought a book with you that you do not wish to bring back home with you, you are welcomed to donated it for others to borrow. We just ask that you donate only your books, not the ones from the shelves of Abalone Bay.
Reminder: Kindly check your shelves at Abalone Bay and home to see if you have a book with The Sea Ranch Library stamp that you may have neglected to return. If it made it home with you please send it back to us so we may take bring it to the Ohlson Ranch House as soon as possible.
More than just books, there are also DVDs, puzzles and board games that can be borrowed. Books and board games … seriously, the kids may feel they have died and gone to heaven.
Local Babysitter/Nanny Available
NOTE: We strongly recommend you interview and verify references of any babysitter /nanny before you hire.
The Traveling Nanny ~ Stacy Weeks :
Stacy Weeks has 20 years of nanny experience including newborns up to preteens and twins. Trustlined, CPR certified, and great references. Brings fun activities to keep your child having fun while you enjoy some adult time. You can contact her at mendosweetheart707@gmail.com or through her cell 707-357-4105. She looks forward to hearing from you!
What if My Child Gets Sick?
Of course, a sick child while on vacation can be heart-stopping issue for any parent. Our Redwood Coast Medical Service Providers (RCMS) provide infant care from birth on. Another thing to consider, RCMS immunizes children as recommended by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and as required for school-age children by the State of California. The health center also does school athletic physical exams for medical clearance. Health providers can help with all unplanned visits such as rashes, fevers, ear infections, cuts, and scrapes, etc. We recommend family practice trained RCMS Primary Care providers
RCMS’s Urgent Care works with all ages for urgent matters. They can help prevent some trips to the emergency room, and arrange transfer to an emergency room as needed.
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