Bolinas, Coastal community on Pacific shoreline, United States
Bolinas is a settlement in Marin County on the California Pacific coast, sitting on a peninsula between lagoon and open sea. Narrow residential streets lead down to the beach, where strips of sand meet the water and wave crests break against rocky sections.
The Coast Miwok people lived here before Spanish arrival, until Governor Pio Pico granted the land as a rancho to Gregorio Briones in 1846. In the following decades fishing and small shipyards emerged, later replaced by tourism.
The name comes from a 19th-century Spanish coastal designation when Rancho Las Baulines occupied this area. Today locals paddle kayaks in the lagoon and watch seabirds, while artists display their work in small galleries around town.
Getting here means following winding roads through forested hills, where cell signals often weaken or disappear. Few public facilities exist in town, so fill up the tank and bring supplies beforehand.
Duxbury Reef extends west offshore and forms one of the largest accessible intertidal reef systems in North America during low tide. Visitors can then walk among rock pools and spot small sea creatures like starfish and anemones in shallow pools.
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