'The Alcatraz Of Lighthouses' Is An Eerie Gem Left Abandoned On California's Untamed Lost Coast

Flourishing in bright cities and warm sandy beaches, California is sparkling with sun-soaked destinations. Yet, the shadows of the Golden State's bright spots hide some of the West Coast's most mysterious gems, such as this eerie lake that's said to be the most haunted destination in Yosemite National Park, and abandoned beauties like Darwin, a Death Valley ghost town with desert art and remote charm.

If an off-the-beaten-path landmark in California with rich history and desolate allure appeals to you, the Punta Gorda Lighthouse offers just that. Revered as the "Alcatraz of Lighthouses," the coastal beacon's light dimmed decades ago, yet its abandoned structure still stands along Northern California's Lost Coast between Rockport and Ferndale. The lighthouse resides about 250 miles from the actual Alcatraz in San Francisco, and is not a former prison in any shape or form. Instead, it's one of California's most unique lighthouses and historical gems, empty yet full of historic beauty.

If you're exploring California's striking coast on a beach-and-city-filled road trip, a trek to the Punta Gorda Lighthouse makes for a hauntingly beautiful addition to your travels. While the famous Highway 1 hugs the shore from Dana Point to Leggett, the lighthouse is located farther north along the mysterious Lost Coast — a 75-mile stretch of isolated coastal land that remains untouched by bustling highways and modern infrastructure.

Reaching the lighthouse itself requires a bit of hiking. Situated along the Lost Coast Trail, which comprises 25 miles of black sand beaches and untamed terrain between the Mattole River and Shelter Cove, it's a popular landmark for hikers and backpackers exploring the area. If you have the bandwidth to hike the entire trail, it will take you two to four days to complete, and requires a permit to overnight and camp throughout the King Range Wilderness' steep and rugged coastal landscape. 

If your heart is only set on seeing the Punta Gorda Lighthouse, you can park at the Mattole River Beach and hike the 4-mile-long beach trail to reach it. For vehicles with 4WD, you can take Prosper Ridge Road (which begins a half-mile east of the Mattole Campground) and follow it south to Lighthouse Road until it ends. From there, park and take a short hike towards the sea, where the lighthouse will appear on your left, nestled at the base of a hill along the remote Pacific Ocean shoreline.

Just as intriguing as the journey to the Punta Gorda Lighthouse is its history. After a fatal collision between two ships resulted in the death of 87 people on a foggy night in 1907, the U.S. Congress allocated $60,000 to build a lighthouse on the coast south of Petrolia. Construction of the Punta Gorda Lighthouse was completed by the United States Lighthouse Service in 1911, standing 27 feet tall on the shore. When it was in service, the lighthouse's beacon shone brilliantly from a fourth-order lens lit by an oil vapor lamp and produced a double-flash of its light every 15 seconds, along with a two-second fog signal every 15 seconds, when the weather was tempestuous enough to require it.

After decades of shining its protective ray of light across the sea, the lighthouse became too expensive to maintain and went dark in 1951. Replaced by a lighted offshore buoy, most of the buildings surrounding the lighthouse were eventually torn down. However, the concrete lighthouse and its adjacent oil house still stand today, and were both added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Damaged by the passage of time and a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in 1923, the buildings have been restored and painted over the years. The most recent renovation project was completed in 2023, which replaced the lighthouse's circular staircase and repaired its cracked facade.