The park has a beach, sand dunes, and flat grasslands, with nearly 18,000 feet of ocean frontage. The beach line curves gently to form a "catch basin" for sea debris, which accounts for the volume of driftwood found here. Five miles of gentle, sandy beach stretches southward towards the Point Arena Lighthouse.

One of the main attractions is the excellent steelhead and salmon fishing in the park’s two streams, Brush Creek and Alder Creek.

The park features a variety of coastal wildflowers, including sea pinks, poppies, lupines, baby blue eyes and blue irises. The park provides habitat for tundra swans. The San Andreas Fault runs into the sea at the park.

The park takes its name from the village of Manchester, which is located in Mendocino County on Coast Highway 1 about seven miles north of Point Arena.

This is an area of rich grazing lands flocks of sheep and herds of cattle which add a pastoral note to some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in the world.