Two Unique Northern California Beaches Worth Visiting
We always love finding new and unique beaches to visit. California is FULL of amazing beaches and we wanted to highlight two we visited on one day that we thought were super cool and unique!
Where we stayed:
We were staying in Cloverdale, CA at Russian River RV Campground, which is a Thousand Trails park, which means our entire two weeks was completely FREE, thanks to our membership!
We really enjoyed the park, as it was right on the Russian River, and had a nice stretch of beach to hang out at while the kids played in the water and hunted for crawfish!
our first trip to Goat Rock Beach in Jenner, CA
We realized that Jenner, CA was only an hour’s drive from the campground, and we had heard that it was a super cool coastal town, so Aaron and I went on a little overnight trip to Goat Rock Beach and explored that area one day. It was stunning. However, it was really cold and windy the day we went, so we stayed in the car almost the whole time and just enjoyed the views!
That evening we had a great dinner at Blue Heron in nearby Duncanville, where we would get to experience the famous Pliney The Elder for the first time (it lives up to it’s hype). It was a really cool place where all the “locals” hang out, so we enjoyed the vibe and experience. We stayed the night in Monte Rio at the Highland Dell Lodge, which is right on the Russian River.
Our 5 hour Excursion To Explore The Two Beaches
After our enjoyable experience in the Jenner area, we knew we wanted to share that experience with our kids and friends the Carews (who we were traveling with at the time). We also wanted to experience it again ourselves on a warmer, less windy day!
We had heard of Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, and saw that it was north of the Jenner area, we decided to make a road trip out of it. We looked up the weather forecast for the week, found a day that would be warmer and less windy, and took off! It was a lot of driving, but we’re used to driving a lot, so we went for it.
The first stop: Glass Beach in Fort Bragg.
A little history on Glass Beach: From 1906-1967, cars, batteries, bottle, cans and appliances were pushed over the cliffs into the ocean - a common practice of seaside cities for centuries!
Whattt?
I can’t imagine why people thought this was a good idea. Blows my mind.
Something beautiful was created out of the mess though, thanks to the powerful pounding waves and sharp rocks that broke and smoothed out all the glass, turning into a rainbow covered beach.
It was fun to treasure hunt and guess what the tiny pieces of smooth sea glass used to be. We had a great time exploring but were sure to leave everything we found behind for others to enjoy. The area has become extremely picked over, due to so many people taking the sea glass, which is illegal. It was still a neat experience to see the unique beach and imagine what it used to look like in the past!
While in Fort Bragg, we were excited to visit North Coast Brewing Co., but when we drove by, we noticed it was closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. A major bummer! Oh well, we had more stops to make…
The second stop: Goat Rock Beach in Jenner, CA
We left Glass Beach and hopped on Hwy 1 and headed south. It was a beautiful drive, but it took about 2.5 hours to get to Goat Rock Beach due to the winding roads. As we got closer, a thick fog started appearing as we approached Jenner.
Aaron and I had seen the beauty of the area on a clear day, but we were super bummed that the fog was totally obscuring the views from our kids and friends! At least it was warmer and less windy, and we were able to get out and explore this time at Goat Rock Beach. After we got over the initial fog disappointment, we started to enjoy the unique experience and views of the thick fog. It was beautiful and added some mystery!
We drove down to the beach to the furthest parking lot at the bottom, and first explored the beach area on the left of the parking lot. It was sandy and the waves were pretty tame. The kids played in the waves a bit in the thick fog.
Next, we walked over to the beach on the right side of the parking lot and couldn’t believe how different it was! Instead of sand, it was COVERED with small, smooth, colorful pebbles! The waves were crashing into the shore on this side. There were some rusty “bones” of some old machines or tanks just resting in the bigger rocks that I would have loved to know the story behind!
On our drive back to the RV’s in Cloverdale, we we planning on getting dinner at Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, home of that famous Pliney The Elder! However, once we arrived, they notified us that they weren’t adding any more people to the waitlist for the evening. Such a bummer! We were 0-2 on our brewery stops for the day, but had two great beach experiences with friends.
I highly recommend checking out these two unique beaches if you’re in the area!…Just be prepared for a lot of driving.