Kayak Mendocino

My husband loves kayaking, so we knew this was going to be a “must do” activity during our trip. Coming over the bluffs of Mendocino, you’ll see Van Damme cove and there you’ll meet Craig with Kayak Mendocino.

What is Kayak Mendocino?

Kayak Mendocino is a no frills sea kayaking adventure. You don’t book in advance. You don’t need any previous experience. And you don’t need your own gear. Tours are most days at 9am, 11:30am, 2pm, and 4pm.

Tours are about an hour and a half in length. It’s $80 per person and you pay when you get there. You can choose to do a single rider kayak or a tandem one for two people. Since I don’t have much experience kayaking (and I wanted to get some footage of our trip), we opted for the tandem option.

If you’re worried about not having the strength to do it, don’t be. If you’re kayaking in a tandem boat, both people don’t have to be paddling at the same time, you can take turns if you get tired – but it’s really not that strenuous.

Is There any Wildlife?

The water itself is pretty calm – at least it was the day that we were out there. Because of this, we were able to paddle with ease and see a lot of sea life. We saw a couple different types of jellyfish. One was the classic looking moon jellyfish and one looked like an egg yolk. There was also another creature called a salp that looked like a crumpled up clear water bottle. Very strange but very cool at the same time. We also saw colorful starfish and even a family of seals sunbathing.

Is it Safe?

Going through the sea caves was intimidating at first, but it ended up being our favorite part. Paddling in, you can’t see anything at all – but then it opens up to beautiful caverns with colorful algae and soaring jagged edges. Craig said that on rocky seadays, it’s not safe to go into the caves, so we were thankful to have been there on a good weather day.

What to Wear

For what to wear, we wore long sleeve fishing-type shirts and athletic pants and water shoes. Technically you can go barefoot, but your feet will not enjoy the jagged rocks on the beach when you’re getting in and out of the water.

These kayak sea cave tours are for ages 4 and up.