Heart's Desire Beach(Tomales Bay State Park)

Located in Tomales Bay State Park, Heart’s Desire Beach is a popular beach with light brown sand. There is a grassy area behind this beach and it is also surrounded by forests. We recommend wearing layered clothing while visiting this beach as the weather around this beach is known to change unpredictably and the beach is known to have sudden spells of cold and windy weather.

While Heart’s Desire Beach does not have lifeguards, the beach has many amenities including restrooms, picnic tables, barbecue spots, a boat launch for hand-carried boats, and walking trails. 

Heart’s Desire Beach offers many fun activities including swimming, picnicking, fishing, paddle boarding, kayaking, canoeing, and boating. The water near Heart’s Desire Beach is known to be generally warm, calm, and shallow, making it ideal for children, amateur swimmers, kayakers, and paddleboarders. However, the water near the beach is known to have occasionally strong currents during windy and stormy weather. Kayakers can launch their boat from this beach and explore the beautiful Tomales Bay and the surrounding shoreline. If you are planning to motor-boat in the water near Heart’s Desire Beach, keep in mind that motorboats need to be at least 100 feet away from the markers designating the public swimming areas. Depending on the time of the year, you can also catch many kinds of fish in the water near the beach including surfperch and halibut. However, if you are planning to fish in the water near Heart’s Desire Beach, please make sure that you are following the local fishing regulations. This beach is popular among families as it has picnic tables and children-friendly water. In addition, the beach offers a marvelous Instagram-worthy view of the Tomales Bay shoreline. The water near Heart’s Desire Beach is home to harbor seals and you can also see a wide variety of seabirds near this beach. You can also explore the vibrant biodiversity around Heart’s Desire Beach through the hiking trails present nearby. The half-mile-long self-guided Indian Nature Trail starts from this beach and offers an interesting insight into the local flora and history. There is another hiking trail near the beach that leads to a virgin grove of bishop pine trees known as the Jepson Memorial Grove. Other types of trees found in the state park area around the beach include oak, willows, alders, and madrones. The area around the beach is also known to be the home of many animals including foxes and deer. However, if you are planning to hike in the area around this beach, we recommend being careful as this area is known to have poison oak.

The beach also offers accessibility to people with disabilities. 

Getting to Heart’s Desire Beach is easy - the sign indicating the entrance to Tomales Bay State Park is present near 1208 Pierce Point Road, from where you can easily drive to Heart’s Desire Beach. There is a paid parking lot near this beach. It is important to note that if you are planning to visit Heart’s Desire Beach on a weekend, make sure that you visit early in the morning as the parking lot for Heart’s Desire Beach fills up quickly during weekends. In addition, the state park restricts public access to this beach when the parking lot fills up. If this parking lot is filled up, you can drive to the nearby trailhead for the Jepson Trail, which is located near the intersection between Shallow Beach Road and Pierce Point Road and where a free parking lot is also available. From this parking lot, you need to walk around one-and-a-half miles on the Jepson Trail to get to Heart’s Desire Beach. 

There are many attractions near Heart’s Desire Beach. Cypress Tree Tunnel is a beautiful tunnel composed of cypress trees. This tunnel offers some excellent Instagram-worthy photos. Pierce Point Ranch is a historic site that was a popular dairy ranch in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The ranch offers a unique insight into the interesting history of Northern California. The site includes the main house, a blacksmith shop, barns, a dairy house, and a schoolhouse. Pierce Point Ranch is a part of the United States National Register of Historic Places and is one of the oldest surviving ranch houses in the Point Reyes Peninsula. If you are looking for another attraction near Heart’s Desire Beach, Heidrun Meadery is 20 minutes away by car and offers memorable mead-tasting sessions, and also has picnic spots. In addition, the meadery also organizes tours of its premises that offer an interesting insight into the making of mead (wine made from honey).

If you get hungry, there are many restaurants near Heart’s Desire Beach. Saltwater Oyster Depot is an upscale local restaurant that is famous for its oysters and oyster-based dishes. The restaurant also serves many other kinds of excellent seafood dishes including clam chowder, fish-and-chips, and seafood risotto. In addition, the restaurant has also been praised by the prestigious MICHELIN Guide. Vladimir’s Czechoslovakian Restaurant offers delicious central and eastern European dishes including chicken paprikash, Viennese schnitzel, Hungarian goulash, and chicken Vienna. If you are looking for another good and affordable restaurant near Heart’s Desire Beach, Inverse Park Market has a modestly priced delicatessen that offers delicious burgers, sandwiches, bagels, quesadillas, and burritos.

If you are looking for a hotel near Heart’s Desire Beach, there are many great nearby options. Cottages at Point Reyes Seashore offers many amenities including a hot tub, a saltwater pool, a tennis court, space for lawn games, and a barbecue spot. A more affordable hotel is the 3-Star Tomales Bay Resort & Marina that offers many amenities including a pool, a beach club, a restaurant, a boat launch, a marina, and nearby hiking trails. In addition, the hotel also organizes many activities including kayaking sessions, biking tours, and massages for a fee. If you are looking for another good and affordable hotel near Heart’s Desire Beach, the Abalone Inn is a bed-and-breakfast that offers many amenities including a garden patio, a hot tub, a lounge with a fireplace, complimentary breakfast, and massage treatments (for a fee).