When our little guy was born, we were exceptionally reluctant to travel. Our California exploration came to a dry spell. We simply were trying to figure out how to work around the schedule of our little human being. We decided to take a weekend getaway from bust city life at Stinson Beach cabins. Little community of Stinson Beach is a perfect secluded beach town for days like these.
Tucked away from the lights of San Francisco City by Steep Ravine is a is a tiny but very tightly knit and welcoming town on the shore of Pacific ocean. With a population of nearly 500 it seems as if everyone has known each other for a lifetime in this settlement. It is hard to imagine that places like this still exist in the continental USA and yet here it is like small pearl in an oyster. Pacific ocean to the South as one half of the shell and the Mt. Tamalpais range to the North as the other.
Places to eat at Stinson Beach
The main artery pulsing through S.B. is the Pacific Coast Highway which is one of two ways to get here, Panoramic High way being the second. There are only 4 restaurants in town and even if you are staying just for one day – you can easily visit all 4 for breakfast, lunch, quick snack and dinner.
Parkside Cafe (our favorite place by far)
A town for inspiration
It is almost impossible not to catch the author’s inspiration flu once you settle in one of the Stinson Beach cabins on the mountain slope. Swaying shaggy cypress trees, and endless ocean alone are enough for me to slide down into pensive nostalgia. Completes the picture is a multitude of various tropical and native flowering plants with a myriad of humming birds whizzing by, looking like something out of James Cameron’s movie.
There simply isn’t a place on PCH that is more quaint and quite than S.B., it is much like Carmel-by-the-sea, but cozier. It is absolutely perfect for bad weather get away spot. When you can sit in the comfort of your shelter with hot mug of warm honey sweetened tea.
Feel the heat from the fireplace biting your toes while the storm outside is bending the will of nature; making the fauna scatter away into the burrows and punishing innocent flora with relentless and abundant downpour. Looking out through the glass doors of the patio into the monsoon raging over the ocean, tormenting the coastline I can almost reminisce the drama of my earlier life.
Steep Ravine Campground and cabins
Enjoy a short hike to the nearby steep ravine campsite or even stay there overnight if you feel adventurous. Perhaps not an ideal place especially for little kids since the cold winds usually rage over the barren landscape of the outcrop. Apparently there are hot springs pulsating underneath the cold pacific ocean rip currents near the shore. Many people climb down to enjoy the warmth in the unfriendly climate.
If you begin a hike in John Muir National Monument and head west, only 3 hours later you will make it to Stinson Beach on the shore of Pacific ocean.
For Oyster Lovers there are several spots off of PCH on the way to Dillon’s beach with “Tomales Bay Oyster” being my favorite.
Thank you Auntie Shannon for having us over !
[…] a walk. On the positive note though, you can use it as a starting point to hike all the way to Stinson Beach! Seriously you can walk all the way to the beach in just a couple of hours. See you on the […]