If you’re driving down Highway One north of San Francisco don’t look for the road sign to Bolinas, California, because this quirky coastal hamlet is the only California municipality without a road sign to lead you to from the highway to the city limits. There used to be a sign that said “Bolinas, 2 miles;” many of them in fact, but each of the signs put up in the last 20 years has enigmatically disappeared-the longest-standing sign being up for a total of 36 hours. Bolinas residents, who often refer to their town as “The Republic of Bolinas”, have torn down the signs marking the turnoff so often the highway department finally gave up on erecting new ones.
Bolinas is an unincorporated town of 2500 located 30 miles North of San Francisco at the southernmost tip of the Point Reyes National Seashore, surrounded by ocean and well-preserved parkland. Long known for its live and let live attitude, this spirited community of environmentalists, poets, surfers, artists, writers, and aging individualists doesn’t have a mayor or a city hall, but its breathtaking scenery, rare wildlife, easy-to-surf waves, and handful of good restaurants and art galleries make Bolinas a perfect destination for weekenders to find a quiet getaway, explore nature, and experience one of California’s most culturally unique communities.
Bolinas has a rich history as a counter-culture enclave. Residents have included such bohemian luminaries as the Jefferson Airplane and poets Lawrence Ferlenghetti and Richard Brautigan. But recent years have seen a clash of hippie van and BMW cultures as artists and musicians have had to make room for well-to-do San Franciscans fleeing the City, as well as more mainstream celebrities like Martha Stewart or Susie Tompkins Buell, the founder of the Esprit Corporation.
Bolinas is circular in shape and perched on a peninsula formed at the point where the mouth of the Bolinas Lagoon meets the Pacific Ocean. The town is divided into two neighborhoods: a residential area, “La Mesa,” and a “downtown Bolinas.” A drive through La Mesa reveals a flat plot of land overlooking the sea that is divided into lots, on which residents have built homes that run the gamut of architectural styles. Visitors can snack on wild the blueberries that grow by the sides of La Mesa’s unpaved roads while viewing huge Tudor-style residences and rancheros side by side with geodesic domes and even mobile homes.
Downtown Bolinas sits on a horseshoe shaped road that curves past a handful of restaurants and shops to end at the beachfront and wharf at the Bolinas Lagoon. A walk down Wharf Road offers a look at some of the town’s old Victorians, remnants of the burg’s days as a summer colony for cavorting San Franciscans in the late 1880s. The downtown area is also home to Smiley’s Schooner Saloon, a relic of the days (from 1849 to 1933) when sailing schooners hauled lumber and dairy products from Bolinas to San Francisco and returned with food staples and farm supplies. Established in 1851, Smiley’s predates San Francisco’s North Beach tavern, “The Saloon” (1865) as California’s oldest established watering hole. These days, Smiley’s serves food as well as drinks, and boasts a “simple but elegant” hotel for $69 to $89 a night. Step over the large but friendly dog that guards the door of Smiley’s and head for the jukebox, to play “Bolinas” by John Stewart. This 1990 ode to the town begins with the lyrics:
Time in Bolinas is so very small
The clock on the courthouse ain’t workin’ at all
And the Mayor of Bolinas is digging for clams
But the folks of Bolinas
They don’t give a damn.
Across the street from Smiley’s is the Coast Cafe where visitors can enjoy a hearty brunch under an historic display of surfboards hanging from the ceiling. Every weekend, barbecued oysters from nearby Tomales Bay are available on the patio of the Coast Café.
The Blue Heron Inn and Restaurant is the town’s four-star eatery, housed in a Victorian home with lovely gardens in the heart of downtown. The changing menu features local produce, meat, and fish, and even local wine from Bolinas winemaker Sean Thackrey, made less than a mile up the road.
The Bolinas Museum at 59 Wharf Road (www.bolinasmuseum.org) is housed in five small rooms clustered around a brick courtyard that is also home to the Bolinas Gallery and several artisans’ shops. The Museum features changing exhibits by local painters and photographers as well as a permanent collection that includes Miwok artifacts and other memorabilia from Bolinas’ colorful past. Downtown Bolinas is rounded out by one of the few remaining gas stations on the West Marin coast, a liquor store housed in an 1890’s barn, and several bed-and-breakfast inns.
The Bolinas Library, the Bolinas Community Center, and the Whole Earth Natural Foods Store together constitute a kind of town square that is the hub for Bolinas’ active counter culture community. Here, street musicians will serenade you while you lunch on delicious organically-grown local delicacies and peruse the unique arts and crafts sold by street vendors. You may choose to leave an old sweatshirt at the Free Box behind the Community Center, where anyone who wishes to can take select from the donated clothing, or you may choose to take part in one of the heated political debates that always seem to be in full swing in front of the library.
Bolinas’ Brighton Beach is easily accessible at the ends of Wharf Road and Brighton Avenue in downtown Bolinas. Strolling along the shoreline you will be delighted by the harbor seals that frolic in the waves with surfers and kayakers, as well as the wide variety of collectable shells that dot the shore. Don’t be surprised if you feel compelled to express yourself artistically by adding a thoughtful contribution to the magnificent giant driftwood sculpture that stands at North end of the beach.
Because of Bolinas’ unique coastal position, the surf is protected from the winds and huge swells that make other beaches in Northern California too dangerous for beginners. In recent years, Bolinas has been discovered as one of the very best surf spots for beginning and intermediate surfers, and Bolinas has turned into a surf town. Most of the surfers in here are beginners themselves so everyone is accepting and helpful.
However, you should know that the mouth of Bolinas Lagoon constitutes the northernmost tip of California’s “Bloody Triangle”, stretching from Bolinas to Santa Cruz to the south, where the vast majority of the Golden State’s shark attacks have taken place. Sharks that sup on the many harbor seals that habituate the area have been known to confuse surfers with food. While shark attacks are rare, they have happened; California’s most recent attack occurred in 2001 when a Great White bit a surfer at the mouth of the Bolinas Lagoon. While his surfboard was destroyed, the surfer survived the attack with only a scar. But, if you can brave the 56-degree water and your fear of 18-inch incisors, you will likely find some small and slow-moving waves-reminiscent of Waikiki Beach-that are easy and fun to ride. Lessons, Surfboards and kayaks as well as critical accoutrements like wetsuit and boots may be rented Monday thru Friday 10am – 6pm, at the 2 Mile Surf Shop (415-868-0264, www.surfbolinas.com).
But don’t spend the whole day in town-some of Bolinas’s best assets are the surrounding natural attractions. Motorists can drive west on Mesa Road and wind through eucalyptus trees, magnificent views, and windy bluffs to the Point Reyes National Seashore. At the point of the road where the pavement ends, there is a parking lot that serves as a nexus for several hiking trails. One that is easy but rewarding is the three-mile Coast Trail to the beautiful and surprisingly warm Bass Lake. If you’d rather hike up along the ridge for views of Point Reyes National Seashore and the ocean beyond, trek along the Ridge Trail, which totals 16 miles in length, culminating at Glen Camp. Because this national park has some of the best bird watching opportunities in the nation, don’t forget to stop at the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (999 Mesa Road).
Environmental activism, and even extremism, have been a staple of Bolinas history since the Audubon Canyon Ranch was founded in 1962 to save the heron and egret-nesting colony at the Bolinas Lagoon from developers. The Bolinas Lagoon Preserve, which you will pass on your way into town, supports a major heronry of Great Blue Herons and Great and Snowy Egrets. The egrets and herons nesting at Bolinas Lagoon are a main attraction of this preserve, but you can also find black-tail deer, bobcat, badger, gray fox, raccoon, brush rabbit, meadow mouse, as well as numerous land birds, reptiles, and amphibians. The Preserve’s frontage along Bolinas Lagoon also brings more than 60 species of water and shore birds into view-from sandpipers to osprey to pelicans-as well as some of the resident harbor seals sunbathing on sand spits.
So when your planning a weekend getaway, or just a day’s sojourn from City life, a trip to Bolinas will sure to provide you with memories to treasure and stories to tell. But remember! If you’re looking for the road sign to Bolinas, you’ll find it in the Bolinas Museum; there aren’t any on the highway…
Bolinas, CA:
Who should go –
Hikers, surfers (novice or otherwise), environmentalists, motorists, shell-collectors, beachcombers art collectors and enthusiasts of 60s counter-culture movements.
Where to stay –
Bolinas Bed & Breakfast
15 Brighton Ave,
Bolinas, CA 94924
(415-868-1757)
Dog’s Inn On The Mesa
20 Mesa Rd,
Bolinas, CA 94924
(415-868-2110)
Grand Hotel
15 Brighton Ave,
Bolinas, CA 94924
(415-868-1757)
Smiley’s Schooner Saloon and Hotel
41 Wharf Road,
Bolinas, CA 94924
(415-868-1311)
Where to eat –
Blue Heron Inn
“Wonderful Local Food”
Dinner: Thursday to Sunday, 5:30 – 9:30
11 Wharf Road, Bolinas, CA 94924
Reservations only: 415 868-1102
Coast Café
Local Seafood and Organic Produce”
Open for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Sunday to Thursday: 7:30 am – 2 pm, 5:30 – 8 pm
Friday and Saturday: 7:30 am – 3 pm, 5:30 – 9 pm
46 Wharf Road, Bolinas, CA 94924
415 868-2298
How to get there:
Bolinas is about 30 miles north of San Francisco. Take State 1 north past Stinson Beach and around the Bolinas Lagoon. Just before the highway starts to climb, turn left on Olema-Bolinas Rd. (look carefully; remember the street sign is missing) and follow it about 2 miles to downtown.
SOURCES CITED:
John Stewart The Lonesome Picker Rides Again “Bolinas.”
New York Times “Welcome to Bolinas, now leave…
The Bolinas Museum: (www.bolinasmuseum.org) “History of Bolinas”
Bolinas Foundation News: “River Otters Visit the Bolinas Lagoon”
Website of the County of Marin CA (www.marin.org) demographic, historical and legislative information.
Personal Interviews: “Raven,” Mike Parrish and Steven Thackery
