Standish-Hickey (Eel River)
Leggett (northern Mendocino County) · near Leggett / Laytonville · North Coast
Swimming & Hot Springs
At a glance
- Temperature
- 65–74°F
- Cost
- State recreation area day-use fee · Redwood Campground adjacent
- Season
- July–September
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
- Safety
- Family swimming at the main pool; standard river caution. Summer afternoons are hot in the canyon — the point, really.
Swimming & Hot Springs detail
- Type
- swimming-hole
- Temp
- cool
- Clothing optional
- No
- Directions
- Standish-Hickey SRA entrance off Hwy 101 at Leggett; drive down into the river canyon to the day-use area by Redwood Campground.
- Pools
- A large, deep main pool (rock-jumping depth) with a sandy family beach, plus shallower pools up- and downstream along the emerald South Fork Eel.
- Intl tip
- Leggett is home to the famous drive-through Chandelier Tree (kitsch, but do it). Highway 1's wild northern terminus begins here, corkscrewing to the coast at Westport — one of California's great empty drives.
The guide
Standish-Hickey is the quieter Eel River option — a big, deep emerald pool with a sandy family beach where the South Fork serpe…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Standish-Hickey (Eel River) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.876, -123.728