Pelican Cliffs Reserve is located about a mile south of Point Arena. The park is not well marked, but does have convenient parking and a well marked path down to the Pelican Cliffs.

The park placard above Pelican Bluffs says that the vertical lines visible on the pinnacle were laid down as flat sedimentary layers offshore near Pismo Beach, some 300 miles south of Point Arena. Over time, as the Pacific and North American plates moved in opposite directions, these sediments traveled northward until a portion of the sediments were jolted and hoisted to their current near vertical position which you see in the painting below