Beaches & the Marin Headlands Near Sausalito

Here's the honest version: Sausalito itself doesn't have a real swimming beach. Richardson Bay's waterfront is docks, houseboats, and a few small bayside parks like Dunphy Park — pleasant to sit by, cold and current-prone if you're thinking about swimming. If you came for sand, you need to keep driving (or pedaling) a few minutes further into the Marin Headlands, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and open to the public 24/7 with no entrance fee.

Rodeo Beach

A short drive from downtown through the Headlands, Rodeo Beach is a dramatic, dark-sand stretch backed by cliffs, with a lagoon on one side that draws shorebirds. The Pacific here is cold and the current is genuinely dangerous for swimming — this is a walking-and-looking beach, not a towel-and-swim one — but it's one of the better short hikes in the Bay Area, and it's free. The parking lot at Fort Cronkhite, right behind the beach, has the only accessible restrooms in this part of the park, and there are no food vendors anywhere in the Headlands, so bring your own snacks and water.

Point Bonita Lighthouse

Most visitors never make it out to Point Bonita, which is exactly why it's worth the extra fifteen minutes past Rodeo Beach. Built in 1855, it's one of the oldest lighthouses on the West Coast, and getting to it is half the appeal: a short trail leads through a hand-dug tunnel and across a wooden suspension bridge to the point itself, with open-ocean views the whole way. It's only open to walk out to on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. — plan around those hours or you'll get the tunnel gate closed on you.

Hawk Hill and the Coastal Trail

For views rather than sand, drive or bike up to Hawk Hill above the Headlands for one of the best angles on the Golden Gate Bridge anywhere — better, honestly, than most spots in the city itself. It's not a casual nickname, either: more than 20,000 hawks, falcons, and other raptors pass over this exact ridge every fall, riding the thermals south on one of the continent's great migration corridors, and volunteers with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory are up there counting them most days from September through early December. The Coastal Trail connects several viewpoints if you want to turn it into a longer walk, and Kirby Cove, tucked right under the bridge's north tower, is worth the detour for a very different, much closer view of the span.

Good to know

Beyond the beach and the views, the Headlands hide a couple of odd, worthwhile detours for anyone with a little extra time: the Cold War-era Nike Missile Site opens for docent-led tours the first Saturday of every month, and Battery Townsley, a WWII coastal gun emplacement, opens the first Sunday of every month — both free. The Marine Mammal Center, a working seal and sea lion rescue hospital, is also based here and welcomes visitors most days. A free weekend shuttle connects the main stops — the Bay Area Discovery Museum, the visitor center, Rodeo Beach, and Point Bonita — from spring through September, which is worth checking if you'd rather not drive between every stop yourself.

Getting there

The Marin Headlands are reached via Conzelman Road, just off the Alexander Avenue exit before you drop down into downtown Sausalito — so it's easy to combine with a Sausalito day trip either on the way in or the way out. It's about five scenic, switchbacking miles from the bridge's northern end out to Point Bonita. There's no regular public transit into the Headlands themselves outside the seasonal weekend shuttle; otherwise you'll need a car or a bike with real climbing legs, since Conzelman Road climbs uphill fast right from the start.