A Ramble Up the Sonoma Coast
Story by Karen Misuraca, with excerpts from her book, Secret Sonoma: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful & Obscure
The fishing village of Bodega Bay anchors the south end of California’s legendary Sonoma Coast, which is a rugged series of long beaches and cozy coves, rocky bluffs, and soaring headlands, stretching nearly 20 miles along Highway 1.
Whales and Sealife at Bodega Head
High above the seafood cafes and wine tasting salons, the saltwater taffy shop, surf shacks, a kite store, and bobbing boats in the bay, the massive bluffs of Bodega Head peninsula loom over the Pacific. A breezy, wildflowery, 1.7-mile walking path loops around the southern edge of the bluffs, creating 265-foot-high perches for seal and seabird sightings, and for whale watching. November through April, when you see 20-foot-high water spouts and dark mounds cruising near the shoreline, you’re watching the annual migrations of the gray, blue, and humpback whales making their way from the Arctic and Alaska, heading south to give birth in the warm lagoons of Baja California. You can also watch for them on their way back north in the spring, when babies are commonly seen swimming close to their mothers. With binoculars, you may also see dolphins, seals, otters, and even orcas, which are now spotted here, far south of their natural habitat.
On weekends near the West Trail parking lot, volunteers with Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods often set up scopes and share binoculars to help visitors spot whales, and they explain the migration and natural history of the area. A gray whale can be 60 feet long and weigh more than 90,000 pounds, living as long as 70 years. The largest creatures thought ever to exist, blue whales can be 100+ feet long.
Bring your own binoculars to see some of 150 species of birds, from raptors, egrets and herons to the endangered Western snowy plover.
Marine Science on View
If you happen to be out here on a Friday afternoon, don’t miss a tour of the Bodega Marine Laboratory, operated by the University of California, Davis, since the 1960s. Half a mile of coastline and marine environment is studied here by students, who welcome visitors and conduct fascinating tours of their research projects.
Local fish and a kelp forest are on view in a 24-foot-long display, while the harbor aquarium showcases the wildlife of Bodega Harbor. Another aquarium is the home of giant anemones and other organisms that you might encounter in nearby tide pools. In addition, a 5,000-gallon outdoor tide pool is alive with sea creatures.
The students will explain the experiments they’re working on, as well as how climate change and acidification of the oceans are affecting marine life. They are also studying oysters, kelp, and salt marsh restoration; aqua farming, invasive species such as sea urchins; and more oceanographic science.
You may be lucky enough to get a glimpse of one of the lab’s high-tech floating research vessels from which they collect deep-water corals and sediment cores full of mysterious fossils.
Tide Pooling
You’ll discover many tide pools all along the coast, most of which are easily accessible from Highway 1. Swaying with shallow seawater and kelp, the rocky basins are alive with hermit crabs, vivid starfish, flower-like anemones, purple urchins, mussels, and limpets, with miniature sculpin fish darting around. Near Bodega Bay, crabs and other crustaceans are alive and well at Schoolhouse Beach, along with masses of starfish. Plan to wear shoes on the rocky beach here.
About 15 miles north up the coast, Shell Beach is a long, rocky and sandy stretch with tide pools so rich with marine life that school groups are commonly seen here. In spring and summer, you also may encounter roving naturalists who love to tell you all about what you’re seeing. Best time of day for tide pooling is low tide when the pools are shallow, and there is less risk of wave action. And remember, live creature collecting is not allowed.
Children’s Bell Tower
Just north of Bodega Bay, drifting out over the surrounding meadows and hillsides in the soft sea winds, 140 bells chime on the Children’s Bell Tower. Dedicated to all children, the 18-foot-tall, three-tiered monument is a memorial to Nicholas Green, a seven-year-old who was shot and killed by robbers while on a family vacation in Italy in 1994.
When the Green family donated his organs and corneas to seven Italians who were awaiting transplants, the Italians responded in a wave of love and appreciation that resulted in a dramatic increase in organ donations and donor pledges in that country and beyond, a phenomenon called l’Effetto Nicholas (the Nicholas Effect). For the monument — a series of pyramids from which hang the bells — families, schools, churches, and other organizations sent beautiful school bells, church bells, ships’ bells, mining bells, and cow bells. In the center is a 30-inch-high bell from the Marinelli foundry in Italy, which made bells for the papacy for centuries. John Paul II blessed the bell, upon which is engraved Nicholas’s name and the names of the seven recipients. Nicholas’s hometown of Bodega Bay arranged the building of the tower, and the Italian Air Force transported the Italian bells to California.
A copse of cypress trees shelters the setting, which looks onto rolling hills, sand dunes, and ocean views. When the sea winds blow, which they often do, the bell chimes create a miraculous symphony of joyful music.
From the Bell Tower, the Coastal Prairie Trail is a mile-long walking trail to sprawling Salmon Creek beach, with meadow and sea views.
Goat Rock
About ten miles north, one of the most photogenic geological monuments on the Sonoma Coast is Goat Rock, crouching like a lion at the mouth of the Russian River, which empties into the Pacific right here. Along with hundreds of more columns of rock that you can see from Highway 1 along the entire coastline, Goat Rock is a sea stack, a dramatic vestige of 20 to 30 million years ago when the continental plates collided, creating the pillars still visible today. In the summertime, a sandbar appears along the beach, creating a lagoon separating the river from the ocean, and that becomes the temporary home of a large colony of harbor seals, and occasionally sea lions and even fur seals, who birth, nurse, and shelter their pups from predators between March and August. The flip-flopping seals along the edge of the sandbar are the males, protecting their families. Keep your eyes peeled for river otters in the warm waters of the lagoon.
From the driftwoody beach, you may well see whales on their round-trip from Alaska to Baja and back, and the presence of the harbor seals makes this a popular feeding point for transient orcas. Also, watch for the hang gliders who launch from a 150-foot-high bluff above the south end of the beach.
The Village of Jenner
Just up the road, springing out of the Laughlin Range in Mendocino County, the Russian River rambles more than 100 miles before it slides into the Pacific at Jenner, where a clutch of cottages and sea views call for a visit. At the mouth of the river is a tranquil, shallow estero with sandy shoals where migrating birds gather in the thousands and harbor seals lounge to give birth away from the sharp eyes of hungry sharks and whales. Hundreds of pups are born between January and June, and despite their adorableness, visitors and their dogs are required to stay at least 50 feet away.
Overlooking the wildlife action, the deck and the Adirondack chairs of Café Aquatica are catbird seats from which to watch playful otters, swooping pelicans, cormorants, seagulls, barking seals, and kayakers plying the calm lagoon. Here, you can launch your own kayaks to explore the calm estuary, or rent them from Watertreks, where you can also book paddling tours and full-moon paddles.
In an old boathouse, the Jenner Visitors Center is a nature store with history and wildlife displays, along with brochures of places to eat, stay, and explore along the coast, with State Park docents on hand to advise. Seashells, wind chimes, and sweatshirts for blustery days are available at Jenner Sea Gifts & Wine, where you can sit by the fire pit on the outdoor deck, sipping wine as the sun sinks over the horizon.
Just up the road, Jenner Headlands Preserve is a newly developed 5,630-acre woodland and prairie with a mounted telescope for whale watching and a short, accessible paved trail. Avid hikers hit the 15-mile round-trip trail up Pole Mountain, from where, on a clear day, they can see nearly the entire Sonoma Coast.
If You Go
Read more about Sonoma County in the book Secret Sonoma: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful & Obscure by Karen Misuraca (www.KarenMisuraca.com)
Bodega Bay, www.bodegabay.com.
Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory, 2099 Westshore Road, Bodega Bay,(707) 875–2211. Call ahead to tour. www.marinescience.ucdavis.edu.
Children’s Bell Tower, west side of Highway 1, 1.5 miles north of Bodega Bay, (818) 952–2095. www.nicholasgreen.org.
Goat Rock, (707) 875–3483; www.parks.ca.gov. On-site restrooms and picnic tables; dogs are not allowed, although they are okay on adjacent Blind Beach. Swimming is prohibited due to sneaker waves and rip currents.
Café Aquatica, 10439 Highway 1, Jenner, 707–865–2251. www.cafeaquaticajenner.com
Jenner Visitors Center, 10451 Highway 1, Jenner, (707) 865–9757.
Watertreks, www.watertreks.com.
Jenner Headlands Preserve, 12001 Highway. 1, Jenner, (707) 243–3064. https://www.sonomacounty.com/outdoor-activities/jenner-headlands-preserve
