Bodega Harbor is a small, shallow, natural

harbor A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

on the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

coast of northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, approximately northwest of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. The harbor is approximately in area. The harbor is in

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa, California, Santa Rosa. It is to the n ...

at , on the eastern side of

Bodega Head Bodega Head is a small promontory on the Pacific coast of northern California in the United States. It is located in Sonoma County at , approximately northwest of San Francisco and approximately west of Santa Rosa. The peninsula, which is ap ...

and is protected from the main part of

Bodega Bay Bodega Bay ( es, Bahía Bodega) is a shallow, rocky inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of northern California in the United States. It is approximately across and is located approximately northwest of San Francisco and west of Santa Ros ...

to the south by a narrow sandy spit of land. The village of

sits along the eastern side of the harbor.

Geologically Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Eart ...

, the harbor is formed by a depression of the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonics, tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is Fault (geology)#Strike-slip fau ...

. Southwest of Bodega Harbor is the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Bodega Marine Reserve Bodega Marine Reserve is a nature reserve and marine reserve on the coast of northern California, located in the vicinity of the Bodega Marine Laboratory on Bodega Head. It is a unit of the University of California Natural Reserve System, admini ...

on Horseshoe Cove. Bodega Harbor is a good location for access to Cordell Bank,

Tomales Bay Tomales Bay is a long, narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Marin County in northern California in the United States. It is approximately long and averages nearly wide, effectively separating the Point Reyes Peninsula from the mainland of Mar ...

, and the

Farallon Islands The Farallon Islands, or Farallones (from the Spanish ''farallón'' meaning "pillar" or "sea cliff"), are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The island ...

. The

maintains a

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...

study in the

mud flat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

s, along the southwestern corner of the harbor. Bodega Harbor is recognized for protection by the

California Bays and Estuaries Policy The Water Quality Control Policy for the Enclosed Bays and Estuaries of California is published by the California State Water Resources Control Board as guidelines to prevent water quality degradation. The policy is revised as needed.State Water ...

.State Water Resources Control Board ''Water Quality Control Policy for the Enclosed Bays and Estuaries of California'' (1974) State of California

History

Campbell Cove near the entrance of the harbor from Bodega Bay is sometimes mentioned as a possible landing site of

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 (t ...

on the coast of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

in 1579. The site is not, however, considered to be a likely candidate by most historians. ''See:''

Drakes Estero Drakes Estero is an expansive estuary in the Point Reyes National Seashore of Marin County on the Pacific coast of northern California in the United States, approximately northwest of San Francisco. Location and description Situated at , the ...

Bolinas Lagoon Bolinas Lagoon is a tidal estuary, approximately in area, located in the West Marin region of Marin County, California, United States, adjacent to the town of Bolinas. It is a part of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. In 1974, ...

The harbor was used from 1811 to the 1840s by

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

rs, part of the Russian Ross Colony, or

Fort Ross Fort Ross (Russian: Форт-Росс, Kashaya ''mé·ṭiʔni''), originally Fortress Ross ( pre-reformed Russian: Крѣпость Россъ, tr. ''Krepostʹ Ross''), is a former Russian establishment on the west coast of North America in ...

. The harbor and the town were the primary location used by

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

for his 1962 movie '' The Birds''. Several scenes were shot using watercraft on the harbor. The coastal freighter ''Marin'' was built at

Antioch, California Antioch is the third-largest city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area along the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. The city's population was 115,291 at the 2020 Unite ...

in 1928. When no longer useful for coastal trade, ''Marin'' was anchored in Bodega Harbor as a floating warehouse for local fishermen until a storm blew her ashore on the northern end of the harbor. A plan by

Pacific Gas & Electric The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...

to build a

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...

on Bodega Head included building a road to the proposed construction site, and that road passed seaward of the grounded freighter. The power plant project was abandoned in 1964 but the road remained and ''Marin'' gradually collapsed into the surrounding trees.

Current use

The natural harbor hosts two marinas, a boat launch, two fishing ports, campground and several waterfront restaurants. However, the primary recreational use is windsurfing and kitesurfing. The inner harbor is shallow, from no water at low tide to at high tide, and provides an ideal place to learn and improve.

References

External links

{{Portal, San Francisco Bay Area Ports and harbors in the San Francisco Bay Area Transportation in Sonoma County, California Geography of the San Francisco Bay Area Bodega Bay