BODEGA BAY
Bodega Bay is a fishing village fifty miles north of San Francisco. It is the site of the first Russian structures built in California, erected in 1809 by the Russian-American Company prior to the establishment of Fort Ross. The village is also the location of scenes for The Birds, a 1963 suspense/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the 1952 story by Daphne du Maurier. The film features the screen debut of Tippi Hedren who continues to visit Bodega Bay to meet fans of the film. The hamlets of Bodega and Valley Ford are just a few miles inland from the coast.
Pacific Gas & Electric planned to build the first commercially viable nuclear power plant in the USA on Bodega Head in Bodega Bay. The proposal was controversial and conflict with local citizens began in 1958. This ended in 1964 with the forced abandonment of plans for the site. However, a pit had already been dug for the foundation of a cooling tower near the tip of Bodega Head in Campbell Cove. Since then, the pit has filled with freshwater and become a pond, informally called the "Hole in the Head", and is a rest stop for migrating birds.
Bodega Head offers visitors excellent vantage points for the viewing of migrating whales. The University of California-Davis, Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory is located on Bodega Head and is dedicated to understanding environmental processes at the land-sea interface on California's North Coast which is an area known for the productivity and diversity of its marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
Visit: Bodega Bay | Sonoma County
SALMON CREEK, SERENO DEL MAR AND CARMET
The small coastal community of Salmon Creek is located just north of the village of Bodega Bay where Salmon Creek meets the Pacific Ocean. The area at the mouth of Salmon Creek was once the location of a Coastal Miwok tribal village called Pulya-lakum. The communities of Sereno del Mar and Carmet are located farther north up the coast between Salmon Creek and Jenner. All of these areas are considered part of Bodega Bay.
