Beautiful Bodega Beach

Famous for all the photographers who have shot this coastline, it is a stunning experience to walk this beach.  It is a stunning experience to walk this beach.  We ate at a picnic table on one of the cliffs, our picnic basket full of swordfish on wheat bread sandwiches and munched on carrots and apples, with lemon water. 

Enjoyed watching the seals swimming and crying out  on their island, and marveled at all the fall red color of the iceplant, the orange and golds  on  the boulders. We observed the black comorants on their gray outcropping rocks, as they landed in safety. A speedboat raced  into the harbor.  We walked along the path where the earthquake fault is located; Susan told me how the lobbyists  defeated the plan(protesting for 9 years) for a nuclear reactor going in this very spot where there is a pond  Can anyone  imagine, how this beauty could have been lost!

 The ocean is reassuring, its force of tides,  as we were there at high tide.  The waves were coming to the shore with incredible surf.   Susan recalled when we saw the mussel gatherers last time, and the young people climbing one of the very high boulders.  Several people were of concern, as they were seeking to take an eroded cliff trail downward to the beach and to find an exit,  instead of walking  the higher safer and more eco sound path over the hillside.   A brown young dog was playing vigorously in the waves.  The sun never shone this brilliantly on any other visit; the rays were dancing off the water.  What a beautiful day!

comorants on rocky ledge

...the rushing surf carving the rocks

Susan Coolidge on the walk

Red, orange, gold on grey cliffs

This gull joined us for lunch, looking hopeful! 



Bodega Bay was the setting for the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film, The Birds, starring Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette.[13] The original 1980 horror film The Fog was also filmed in both Bodega Bay and the town as both locations are subject to thick and heavy fog.  Susan showed me this house and I toured it and the grounds on another trip out to the bay. 

Sitting at one of the picnic tables on the cliff, we enjoyed delicious  swordfish on wheat bread sandwiches and munched on carrots and apples, drinking  lemon water.  Enjoyed watching the seals swimming and crying on their island, and marveled at all the fall red color of the iceplant, the orange and golds  on  the boulders. We observed the black comorants on their gray outcropping rocks, as they landed in safety. A speedboat raced  into the harbor.

We walked along the path to a point where the earthquake fault is located; Susan told me how the lobbyists  defeated the Pacific Gas & Electric to build the first viable nuclear plant in the USA Citizens starting in 1958 protested and demonstrated in 1963 and the conflict ended in 1964 with abandonment of a nuclear  reactor going in this very spot where there is a pond  Can anyone  imagine, how this beauty could have been lost!

 The ocean is reassuring, its force of tides,  as we were there at high tide.  The waves were coming to the shore with incredible surf.   Susan recalled when we saw the mussel gatherers last time, and the young people climbing one of the very high boulders.  Several people were of concern, as they were seeking to take an eroded cliff trail downward to the beach and to find an exit,  instead of walking  the higher safer and more eco sound path over the hillside.   A brown young dog was playing vigorously in the waves.  The sun never shone this brilliantly on any other visit; the rays were dancing off the water.  What a beautiful day!

comorants on rocky ledge

...the rushing surf carving the rocks

Susan Coolidge on the walk

Red, orange, gold on grey cliffs

This gull joined us for lunch, looking hopeful! 


Historical Background. Wilkipedia. Early Spanish and Russian Settlements.

Coast Miwok native Americans lived on the shores of Bodega Bay.  There is speculation that Bodega Bay may have been Sir Francis Drake's Nova Albion landing location on the California coast. which is more associated with Pt Reyes.

Present day Bodega Bay was first charted in 1775 by the Spanish Peruvian explorer of the Spanish Navy Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra  . His ship, the Sonora, anchored in the lee of Tomales Point on October 3, 1775, departing the next day.( Tomales Bay is where the sharks breed as they feed upon the baby seals in this harbor.)  Bodega y Quadra named what is now Tomales Bay Puerto de la Bodega. "There is no evidence in the journal or on the charts that Bodega y Quadra ever saw the entrance to [present day] Bodega Harbour or knew of the lagoon to the north.   Later, as commandant of the naval base at San Blas, New Spain, Bodega y Quadra sent  expeditions  with the intention of establishing a colony and mission

 Proposed Russian Occupation: The  first Russians to see Bodega Bay were the supervisors of the Aleut hunting parties aboard the American otter hunting ship Peacock in 1807. Timofei Osipovich Tarakanov of the Russian-American Company returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, Alaska and reported the location to Alexander Andreyevich Baranov  chief RAC administrator. who instructed his assistant Kuskov to reconnoiter the area for a settlement. Commerce Counselor Ivan Alexandrovich Kuskov, of the Russian-American Company,sailing in the Kodiak, entered Bodega Bay on January 8, 1809. Instructed by Baranov to leave "secret signs" (possession plates), Kuskov buried possession plaques at Trinidad Harbour, Bodega Head,(or Tomales Point) and on the north shore of San Francisco Bay, indicating the Company's intention to claim this section of northern California for Russia. Temporary buildings were erected to house the Kodiak's complement of 190 crew (130 native Alaskan males, 20 native females,and 40 Russians)

The Kodiak remained in Bodega Bay until October, 1809, returning to Alaska with over 2,000 otter pelts. Kuskov returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, Alaska, reporting abundant fur bearing mammals, fish, timber and tillable lands. Baranov directed  Kuskov to  establish a permanent settlement. In 1811 Kuskov returned, aboard the Chirikov but found fewer otter in Bodega Bay (only 1,160 otter skins were taken). Three American ships were also operating in the area from a base in Drake's Bay, sending hunters into San Francisco Bay and the surrounding bays.   Anchorage and Bodega Harbour had not been claimed or named by the Spanish so the Russians named it Rumyantzev, in honor of the Russian Minister of Commerce, Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumiantzof]  Zaliv Rumiantsev (Rumiantsev Bay) appears on the earliest Russian charts of Bodega Bay (1817–1819) identifying present day Bodega Bay and Bodega Harbour. On his return Kuskov found otter now scarce in Bodega Bay, the harbour having been frequented by numerous American and English otter-hunting expeditions. After exploring the area they ended up selecting a place 15 mi (24 km) north that the native Kashaya Pomo people called Mad shui nui or Metini. Metini, the seasonal home of the native Kashaya Pomo people, had a modest anchorage and abundant natural resources and would become the Russian settlement of Fort Ross.[10] By 1817 sea otter in the area were practically eliminated by international over-hunting.[11] Zaliv Rumiantsev continued to be the main entre'port for the Russian Colony until January,1842, and the earliest European structures built at Bodega Bay were the wharf, warehouse and barracks of the Russian-American Company. Bodega Bay remained an active harbor for shipping lumber until the 1870s, when the North Pacific Coast Railroad was built, bypassing the coast in favor of a more inland route.[12]