This was our first visit here. My daughter is obsessed with all things beaches and oceans. This beach is very easy access from the parking lot. I checked the time of low tide so we could arrive when she would get a chance to see all that is the tide pools. She had an absolute blast and I was so happy to just watch her go about her way exploring and creating more memories. read more

See all

Bolinas is a strange little town. The downtown, what there is of it, looks like it hasn't been updated in 80 years, except for a few newer buildings on Brighton. Go west, young man, and it has the feeling of Carmel with smaller trees. Its history is what makes it strange: in the late 1960s, the hippies moved in, the water supply got maxed out so no more new water permits have been granted since then, and residents started tearing down the signs on Highway 1 that pointed to this town. I've been told that, as the hippies are dying off, families and wealthy people are moving in, so it's slowly becoming more normal. But Bolinas is still a world apart, and intends to stay that way. It does have one unusual feature, though: Agate Beach Park. "Beach" is almost false advertising. The sand is a longish walk north. You don't come here to laze in the sun or barbecue some weenies. You come here to explore the tide pools, gaze in wonder at the cliffs, notice that you can see San Francisco from here, and enjoy the remoteness of the place. Marin County takes care of the place, but when you get to the bottom of the stairs, there is NO development at all. Any development would take away from the natural features. And, in a way, the unique flavor of Bolinas add to the charm. No signs point the way, just as no signs tell you to turn here to get to Bolinas. Agate Beach Park is the edge of town, as far away from tourists as you can get. Driving here is like getting immersed in Bolinas counter-culture. There are no crowds here, and not likely to ever be any. If that interest you, then you'll like this park a lot. By the way, you can also climb to the top of the bluff and get some good views and photos. Basically, Agate Beach Park is where you can explore another place where the Great Eternal Artist did some of His best handiwork, and not fight the crowds to do so. read more

Agate Beach Park - The wild Northern California coastline is on display. - Beaches Near Me - Bolinas, California

Always love this beach. Wear rubber boots not swim shoes you need the protection of you want to enjoy the tide pools. Check the tide schedules for low tides for the best viewing. Great sites online for this. Bring your dog, but make sure you have a beach towel just for them. There are bathrooms in the parking. Read the signs at the beginning of the hike to the beach. They'll tell you what's up. read more

Take the fam! Bring rain boots, warm clothes, and some patience. We went during a full moon low tide at sunset, and our four children immediately drop in to looking into the tide pools and crevices. Stay for sunset, it is worth they wait. You get to watch the sunset shimmer behind the distant fog in the pacific. Well worth it. read more

Agate Beach Park - Sunset! - Beaches Near Me - Bolinas, California

Agate Beach isn't your stereotypical swim/lounge/sunbathe type of beach. Calling it a beach is somewhat misleading. It's pretty much a raw shoreline for visitors to appreciate the sea creatures on the reef. Tread lightly, because you're probably squishing a ton of sea creatures with every step. Surprisingly, there was a docent there to provide some guidance on tide-pooling expectations for the area and also seemed to be "patrolling" the area as well, speaking to anyone with buckets in their hands. I learned that because this area has become increasingly popular, there has been more and more damage to the sea critter population here. We spotted anemones, snails, hermit crabs, mussels, barnacles, and a smaller number of chitons, crabs, and worms. Unfortunately, we did not spot any star fish due to their dwindling numbers and the low tide not being in the negative zone. The beach/reef can get muddy and also slippery in some areas, so proceed with caution. Swim shoes with a rubbery grip probably work best. Not sure if this is a very kid or dog-friendly area due to the rocky areas, but it sure seemed great for fishing (not sure if legal/allowed or not here). I saw some fishermen show up and one of them had caught a sizable fish fairly quickly. read more

BOLINAS is a village located near three other villages, namely, Stinson Beach, Olema, and Point Reyes Station. Each of these places is a tourist destination, though Bolinas is somewhat less of a tourist destination, because the town itself and the nearby beaches are somewhat scruffy. Nearby Olema (just a cluster of buildings, not even a village) and Point Reyes Station have the best restaurants in the area. Point Reyes National Seashore is a huge park with beaches and undulating cliffs in the Drake's Bay area that are world class, in terms of photogenicity. Now, back to Bolinas. Bolinas has a theater, where one can see performances by the ever-so-excellent and ever-so-beloved San Francisco Mime Troupe (a definite plus). The theater is at Mesa Park, 100 Mesa Rd., behind the Bolinas Firehouse. The beach at Bolinas has many dogs, and local artwork features paintings of dogs (another plus). At the eastern side of Bolinas Lagoon is Audubon Canyon Ranch, where tourists can view a large egret colony. I find lagoons and marshes to be magical things, especially when egrets can be found. Bolinas Lagoon is magical in this way. My motivation in posting this review, was the stranded whale at Agate Beach Park, which attracted modest numbers of visitors during the last week of May 2017. Agate Beach Park is like the beach area at Palomarin Trailhead, in that the beach is narrow, and likely disappears at high tide. On the plus side, at Agate Beach Park and at the beach near Palomarin Trailhead, the views of the ocean are unobstructed. For the S.F. resident who wants to get away from the Coney Island-type crowds found at Stinson Beach, and who has already seen the awesome and remote beaches in the Drake's Bay area, Agate Beach Park is a good alternative. See my attached photo of the stranded whale, at Agate Beach Park. ISSUE OF SMOOTHENED OVOID STONES. At the far northern terminus of Mesa Road is a parking area, with a trail leading northwards, and a spur trail leading to the beach, where one can find countless thousands of rounded stones, smoothened by being jostled billions of times by the surf. The beaches at Drakes Bay also have many beautiful smoothened stones, and on Feb. 17, 2013, I took an ovoid stone about 5 inches long, and with enamel paint, painted a swirling continuous ribbon, and over the ribbon in script, I wrote a diary about the day's events. But Agate Beach does not have huge collections of smoothened stones, and instead has mostly jagged stones released from the crumbling cliff that borders the beach. Too bad. read more

Agate Beach Park - This is me posing under the tail fin of the stranded whale.The poor thing.The entire whale fluctuated and moved, with each incoming wave. - Beaches Near Me - Bolinas, California

Wow....not getting the low reviews at all! Is this a fun beach for swimming and taking your family? No. Probably not. But it's certainly not pretending to be, either! Come here for: - The views. Gorgeous cliffs looking out over the rocky coastline. - Fun rocks and sea life. No, there's no agate, but there are plenty of other cool rocks (lots of interesting adder stones!), plus snails, starfish, crabs, and the like. - Tranquility! We were here for a few hours on a weekend and saw one person. As you venture toward the rockier side of the beach, you'll run into some cliffs that are slowly collapsing. Definitely a positive and a negative - it's super cool to watch the little pebbles constantly rolling down the cliffs, but I'm sure it's also potentially dangerous. We had some fun pretending we could crush the soft rocks with our superhuman strength, and then moved away from the falling rocks as quickly as possible. read more

Agate Beach Park - At the rocky far end of the beach. - Beaches Near Me - Bolinas, California

See all

We woke up at 4 on a rainy and foggy morning to catch the low tide at 5:30 since it is an hour and a half drive from Castro Valley. The tide pooling sounded fun and I was very excited about it. Actually, I was more excited of the possibility of being able to eat a fresh and live sea urchin so I brought spiced vinegar and lemon wedges and a knife for it. If you want to go straight to the beach, don't go to the sign that says "Trail" on the left side unless you want to see the beautiful view from the cliffs and beach from above. The trail still leads you to the beach but just a little farther. If you are catching a low tide and do not want to waste time, go to the one that's on the right of the parking. You can always come back to do scenic sightseeing afterwards. I've done tide pooling back home and it was fun cuz you get to see a lot of sea creatures and fishes. Since this place has way too many kelps, it becomes more too slippery and scary to hop or walk between rocks and the area is mostly covered by it. You may need to lift them to see some star fish, fish and other sea creatures. We didn't do that so we saw nada but a starfish and a dead crab. If you come here for a scenic view of the beach and cliffs, this would be a good place. We didn't come here for that, so we were quite a bit disappointed. read more

See all

I came here looking for oil agate which i had found in a rock hounding book. It was high tide so hard to find what i came for but i enjoyed the lovely views regardless. It was so hard to find since there was no signs for bolinas off the 1. I heard this is done on purpose to keep the tourists and looky loos out. The beach is full of rough rocks. I was expecting sand so I wore no shoes down the trail. Bad Idea. Beach is mostly pebbles but has some sharp larger rocks on the way in. Cliffs provide lots of falling rocks to short through. some nice beachwood also. read more

The beach itself, scenery and tidepools get 4 stars. The lack of ANY oil agate on this beach that is so named for it deserves 1 star! Like others, I found this beach in a rockhounding book. I did my best to Mapquest it out and it still took us forever to find it. As others have mentioned, there are no signs for the turnoff, so you just have to kind of guess. If you're heading north on 1, look for the huge lagoon to your left, and make the first left you see. There. That was more information than we had to go on! There is a large parking lot and a clear trail down to the beach. Make sure you come at low tide, and it would be wise to check the tide charts before visiting. If you come at high tide, there will be very little actual beach. We spent hours there, and are experienced rockhounds, and found absolutely no agate. Nothing even remotely close to agate. Several other people who were there that day also hadn't found any. I have no idea if the supply is just depleted, or if there's just one little agate vein in the cliffs that we missed, or what. Speaking of the cliffs, they are made of mudstone and are extremely crumbly and unstable. Do not attempt to climb or dig into them. As we were walking along the beach, they were crumbling constantly, which was very unnerving. The tidepools were fun and made up for the lack of agate. We may come back again during the winter and see if we have better rockhounding luck. read more

My husband and I loved it. Not too many people crowding the beach and parking was free. We went this past Sunday and had a nice relaxing day there. I wanted to go to this beach in particular because of, you guessed it, a rockhounding book. Fortunately we came early in the day when the tide was low and there was a bit of fine mist around. Good shoes/hiking shoes are a must since there are a lot of sharp rocks and slippery parts. We found a good amount of oil agate, tumbled by the sea. Will post a picture of the finds! I highly recommend this place to others looking for a nice place to unwind and maybe do some nature photography. read more

Agate Beach Park - One day's agate hunting results! A good time to go is when it's low tide and search close to the water for translucent pebbles - Beaches Near Me - Bolinas, California

My friend and I came here specifically for tide pools, of which there were plenty! It's quite rocky in parts, so bring good shoes. We came during low tide and found lots of sea anemones, hermit crabs and "regular" crabs, small fish, many sea snails, and possibly even some fossilized sea shells. There were some other creatures I couldn't identify either. It was a lot of fun and very educational. The water temperature was quite pleasant and not too cold either. The cliffs by the side of the beach would occasionally let fall some small rocks and gravel, so we tried to avoid being right up next to them. Thankfully there's a lot of room (at low tide at least,) so you don't have to put yourself next to them if you're nervous. In parts, it looks like the cliffs have had scoops taken out of them, and at the base of the scoop is a hill just made of rocks that have fallen off the cliffs. At the top, there were some thin overhanging dirt patches that might -look- stable to a person standing on top of the cliff, but actually hang quite precariously over the edge, like I said. The views in and around the area are also beautiful. read more

Fun place to wander around and sift through tide pools for critters. Make sure to check the tide table before you go, otherwise everything will be hidden at high tide. Don't make the mistake we did and put "Duxbury Reef" in the GPS. It'll lead you to a cow pasture. read more

The agate is there, we found a whole bunch yesterday. Try going in winter after a storm. Note though that it is now illegal to collect rocks at this beach. Catch and release rockhounding. read more

Online photos of this place are very misleading. Maybe they were taken during this areas lowest possible tide. The views are great but as far as activity goes its not worth the winding drive that leaves you feeling sapped of energy. My opinion, spend your day at one of the many other sites and attractions in and around Marin County and don't be fooled by Agate Beach Park like I was. read more

The other reviewers apparently have never read a brochure or the signs or checked on line.... It is NOT sandy. You CANNOT take things since it is a protected marine area. You CANNOT have dogs off leash. I have seen quite a variety of sea life in the tide pools over the years. Born & raised in Marin, and the last time I was there I saw just about everything except a sea urchin, but I have seen those if you go further north along the reef. It's not Southern California or the tropics so not quite sure what some were expecting. I love the place! read more

It's funny, because my family used to visit Agate Beach when I was growing up, and my mother and sister and I found hundreds of the little stones each time we visited. Some time later, not sure when, it became illegal to take them off the beach. Some reviews here state that none were to be found anyway, so maybe the legislation came too late (or was ignored). I wish I hadn't taken so many, but we didn't know...anyway, it's amazing to go and observe the tide pools. I returned many times when my own daughter was growing up. read more

Only IF* the conditions are right! This place is amazing at low tide but it can be freezing cold if you go at the wrong time! Best wear water shoes and shorts! Also bring jackets! I dropped my phone in a tide pool once at the same time simultaneously my best friend dropped her phone in too! Zip lock bags??? Anyways .... I do absolutely love this beach! There's so much life going on all around. It's secluded, it's got great parking! You can see starfish, crabs, sea anenone, hermit crbs, sea urchins, fish, etc.! read more

to the people who think they will find agates here. All agates were removed by rock hounds and tourists by the early 1960.s. There were no protections in place to keep people from taking them off the beach. all you will find are small shards of bottle glass-mainly very common colors-not the rare colors. read more