Big Lagoon (California)

Big Lagoon
Kayaks at the south end of Big Lagoon
Big Lagoon Show map of California Big Lagoon Show map of the United States
Location	Humboldt County, California
Coordinates	41°11′00″N 124°07′00″W / 41.18333°N 124.11667°W / 41.18333; -124.11667
Type	Lagoon
Primary inflows	Maple Creek
Primary outflows	Pacific Ocean
Basin countries	United States
Max. length	3.8 mi (6 km)[1]
Max. width	1.4 mi (2 km)[1]
Surface area	1,470 acres (5.9 km2)[2]
Max. depth	22 feet (6.7 m)[2]
Shore length1	9 miles (14 km)[2]
Surface elevation	20 feet (6.1 m)[2]
Frozen	No
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Big Lagoon is the southernmost and largest of three similar lagoons within Humboldt Lagoons State Park, along the coast of Humboldt County, California.

It is located between Trinidad to the south and Orick at the mouth of Redwood Creek to the north.

The lagoons are shallow bays between rocky headlands where coastal wave action has formed a sandy bar separating each lagoon from the Pacific Ocean. The lagoons are resting areas for migratory waterfowl using the Pacific Flyway between Lake Earl on the Smith River estuarine wetlands 40 miles (64 km) to the north and Humboldt Bay on the Mad River estuarine wetlands 30 miles (48 km) to the south.