Tomales Bay State Park

Tomales Bay State Park is the only state park that fronts this long, narrow inlet of the sea, and for that reason alone it deserves a place in your hiking logbook. The park protects a rich mix of coastal forest, oak woodlands, and bayside beaches, along with a botanical prize that few visitors know about: Bishop pine.

Bishop pine is a curious, rare tree, a cousin to the more common Monterey pine and knobcone pine. Like them, it’s a “fire pine”-its cones sealed tight with resin until heat from wildfire cracks them open and releases their seeds. Bishop pine grows in just a handful of places in coastal California, and the groves here at Tomales Bay are among the northernmost stands. The trees are slow to regenerate, vulnerable to fungal disease, and especially sensitive to climate change. To walk beneath them is to realize you’re in the company of survivors, holding on in fewer and fewer places. You’ll also find Bishop pine stands in Montaña de Oro State Park down the coast in San Luis Obispo County, and at Salt Point State Park north of here on the Sonoma coast, but Tomales Bay gives you perhaps the most intimate way to admire these beautiful, dark-needled trees.

History is honored here too. Botanist Willis Jepson, UC Berkeley professor and author of the classic Manual of the Flowering Plants of California, is remembered by the Jepson Trail. Conservationist Bruce Johnstone, Marin County planner and parks advocate, along with his wife Elsie, helped preserve this stretch of bay and secure its state park status; the Johnstone Trail bears their name.

But Tomales Bay State Park is more than botany and history. Its beaches are legendary. Heart’s Desire Beach-you’ve got to love that romantic name-is the park’s centerpiece and family favorite, with picnic tables, easy access, and sheltered water for wading. Shell Beach, at the far end of the Johnstone Trail, is more remote and rugged, but equally alluring. Pebble Beach and Indian Beach round out a bayside quartet of places that remind you the Bay Area still has wild corners worth savoring.

And don’t underestimate the park’s microclimate. When Point Reyes is shivering under fog and the Golden Gate Bridge has vanished into the gray, Tomales Bay often offers warmth and sun. On a spring day, with wildflowers brightening the slopes and a heron skimming low over the water, it feels like one of the most welcoming spots in all of coastal California.