The Golden Gate Bridge leads to the Northern California coast, which is known for its desolate nature and stark beauty. The beaches are remote and frequently shrouded in fog produced by the cold marine air blowing inland across the heated land during the summer. San Francisco can be colder in the summer than the winter because of the dense fog; no need for air conditioning here, but the temperature just a few miles inland can reach over 100 degrees. Ocean Beach is frequently chilly, which is a good thing considering the dangerous surf and currents. The same is true for the beaches further north at Point Reyes National Seashore and surrounding areas. You really have to pick your beach days carefully.

The best oceanic beach for swimming is Stinson Beach, and this is where many of the beach enthusiasts from San Francisco head during the summer when the sun is shining. It is quite a drive through the curvy mountain roads in Marin County. You can see the beach long before you reach it. Road pulloffs provide a good overview of the entire barrier beach and adjacent Bolinas Bay system. Stinson has good amenities, and the beach is quite popular, particularly with the younger crowd who are interested in swimming. Rip currents are sometimes present, especially during big wave days, but they are well marked by the lifeguards on duty during the summer. The calmest and warmest water for swimming can be found at Heart's Desire Beach on Tomales Bay. This bay also produces some of the biggest and tastiest oysters cultured in these waters.

Point Reyes is a peninsula of land which has been the site of many shipwrecks, mandating the building of a lighthouse on the high cliffs. The Point Reyes Lighthouse, which serves as a visitors center, is a good place to start your excursion. The overlook is a favorite area to watch the migrating gray whales. Here you can actually see a portion of the San Andreas Fault where the ground slipped during the great 1906 earthquake that devastated downtown San Francisco.

The north-facing beach at Point Reyes is a very high energy beach that is interesting to explore by land but never by water. Long whip-like cords of kelp frequently wash up onto the beach, torn from their underwater berths by the large storm waves. Among the coarse sand of quartz and feldspar, you can often find some reddish grains, which are real jewels. I collected a handful of red sapphire grains during my last visit.

In Humboldt County along the Northern California coast are a series of small pocket beaches usually related to a small river or stream that brings sand and cobbles to the coast. One such beach is called Agate Beach, which is a part of Patrick's Point State Park located 25 miles north of the former boom town of Eureka. The entire park, with its spruce-covered cliffs dropping off steeply to the beaches below, is worth exploring; Patrick's Point offers some of the best coastal camping in California. There are numerous sea stacks offshore that cause the waves to break and bounce around in interesting ways, creating unpredictable and dangerous currents; swimming is unthinkable in these cold waters.

Agate is a gem of a beach; in fact, you can search for pieces of agate along this crescent-shaped shore. Scrutinizing visitors know gravel patches hold the best specimens. Beachcombers have also discovered nuggets of semiprecious jasper and black jade as well as petrified wood along this beach, making Agate Beach the Best Novelty Beach in the Northwest.

Crescent City is the most northern city in California. Here the canopy of redwoods is so dense and extensive that you need to use your headlights during daylight hours when traveling on Highway 101, which leads into the city from Klamath. Crescent City is well known to geologists because of the coastal disaster that struck this city by the sea in 1964. A violent earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska, which locally caused considerable damage, generated a large tsunami (these phenomenona have been mistakenly called tidal waves). A series of huge waves stacked the ocean waters up tens of feet high as they curved (refracted) and came ashore at Crescent City, destroying 29 city blocks within minutes. Other cities and towns along the California coast received light damage or merely witnessed abnormally high water, but Crescent City bore the brunt of this tsunami.

California Division of Tourism
801 K. Street Suite 1600
Sacramento,CA 95812
(916) 322-2881

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