- Goat Rock Beach
[
Russian River at the
Pacific Ocean .] Goat Rock Beach is a sandbeach in northwesternSonoma County, California ,United States .This landform is a sub-unit ofSonoma Coast State Beach , owned and managed by the State ofCalifornia . At the northern terminus of Goat Rock Beach is the mouth of the Russian River and the southern end of this crescent shaped expanse is the massiveGoat Rock , an iconicoutcrop of the Sonoma Coast, which is barely attached to themainland by a narrowisthmus .Goat Rock Beach is frequented by beachcombing visitors, but usually not in high numbers except in mid-summer; there is some wading and surfing activity, although these uses are moderated by the legendary
rip current generated by a steep gradient into the water that leads to an underwater trench parallel to the waterline. The beach is also a regular resting ground forseagull s,harbor seal s, andsea lion s, the latter twospecies sometimes hauling out of thePacific Ocean . The state of California recommends that a convert|50|yd|m|adj=on distance be preserved between human visitors and the seasonalmarine mammals , especially in the pupping season.Vicinity features
The Russian River, with its mouth at the north end of Goat Rock Beach, is Sonoma County's largest
watercourse both in flow rate and lineal extent. Immediately beyond the Russian River discharge to thePacific Ocean is the coastal town of Jenner. North of the mouth of the Russian River is Jenner Beach. Goat Rock protrudes into the Pacific at the south end of Goat Rock Beach. Visitors can access the base of Goat Rock via a low lyingisthmus of land which has been appropriated by the State as a parking area. The almost sheercliff s of Goat Rock are virtually impossible to scale or to circumnavigate; in fact, signage is posted prohibiting either activity. There is considerable sloughing of broken rock from these vertical surfaces of Goat Rock. Blind Beach is situated immediately south of Goat Rock Beach, the twobeach es being separated by Goat Rock itself. Along Goat Rock Beach and the adjoining beaches, massive rockoutcrop pings are found both on the shore and protruding from the Pacific Ocean as small skerries. Among these rugged structures arenatural arch es formed by powerful wave action selectively eroding weaker strata of the rock formations. Approximately seventeen miles to the south is another majorgeological feature of theNorthern California coast known asBodega Head . Goat Beach lies below and slightly west of State Route 1.Geology
Goat Rock Beach is subject to continuing marine
erosion as well as windborne erosion, thus creating a situation where an average of one to three feet per year of land mass is lost, [http://baynature.org/articles/jul-sep-2001/goat-rock-state-beach Doris Sloan, "Goat Rock State Beach", Bay Nature, July-September, 2001] ] except for the hardest of outcrop formations . In winters of heavy storms this value can be yet higher. Over the last geologic epoch the land has been subject to uplift, [http://http://baynature.org/articles/jul-sep-2001/goat-rock-state-beach Doris Sloan, "Goat Rock State Beach", Bay Nature, July-September, 2001] ] a process combined with marine erosion, which has created a marine terrace above the entire extent of the beach. This marine terrace elevation varies approximately 30 to 150 feet (10 to 50 meters) abovemean sea level , which results in a steep bluff directly above thelittoral zone, and a succession of terrace levels.The sea stacks along the coast at Goat Rock Beach consist of rocks from the
Franciscan Complex, formed within an era of plate collision along the western coast of North America. From about 200 to 30 million years ago, theNorth American Plate was in continual collision with theFarallon Plate . [Bay Nature, Winter 2001] . A variety of rock types resulted from this collision, including pillowbasalt ,chert , and marinesandstone . During the plate collisions, these rocks were considerably faulted and crushed into melange, which is a mixture of ground-up matrix and resistant pockets of rock floating within. When melange is eroded by wave action, the softer part of the matrix is washed away, leaving the more resistant blocks exposed in the ocean as sea stacks. Goat Rock is such a flat topped [ [http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?] ] sea stack comprised by a block of resistant
greywacke .Vertical sea stack formations, a geological hallmark of this shoreline, appear standing out of the water or on the
beach resembling sculptures. Occasionally these stacks appear on the marine terrace, indicating their ancient genesis on the sea floor prior to uplift. These rock formations are characteristically composed ofsandstone with layers ofquartz .The active
San Andreas Fault runs roughly parallel and near to the coastline of Goat Rock Beach.Soil s within the site are classified as coastal beach sands (whererocky shore line is not evident) andescarpment group soils on the marine terrace; typically soils above the marine terrace are in the Rohnerville loam group. ["Soil Survey, Sonoma County, California",U.S. Department of Agriculture ,Soil Conservation Service , Government Printing Office, Washington DC, May 1972] Most of the beach sands consist of a medium coarse brown to graysand y materials, reflecting the high rate of erosion ofescarpment soils into the ocean; however, there are patches of dark gray smoothpebble beach such as the approximately one hundred meter stretch lying immediately north of Goat Rock.The beach is changed every year.Area history
The oldest
natural history of this area related tomammal s manifests in a series of rockoutcrop s about one third of a mile south of Goat Rock Beach, positioned above the shoreline on a low lyingmarine terrace . There are uplifted sea stack formations with prominent rubbing marks about two to four meters in elevation above the ground surface, a height too high to have been caused by modern bovids.Mammoth s are believed to have roamed here as recently as 40,000 years ago, and they are thought to have created these severe rubbing marks [E. Breck Parkman, "Mammoth Rocks: Part 1, WherePleistocene Giants got Good Rub", Center for the Study of the First Americans, Mammoths Series, Volume 18, Number 1, December 2002] . Mammoth fossil remains have been found atBodega Head at the south end of Sonoma Coast State Beach.The earliest known human settlement of this site was by the Native American
Coast Miwok andPomo tribes. As early as1849 archaeological discoveries were recorded in the vicinity, and to date several prehistoric kitchenmidden s and other types of tribal habitation finds have been made. Goat Rock Beach is part of a Mexicanland grant calledBodega Rancho [Rex Grady, " Let Ocean Seethe and Terra Slide: A History of the Sonoma Coast and the State Park That Shares It's Name"] . TheRussians are thought to have begun logging theold-growth forest s directly above the coastal prairie in the early 19th century.The underwater delineation of the property is considered to extend to 1000 feet from the
shore line. While noshipwreck s have been discovered, the literature indicates that there are at least 17 vessels which may have been lost in these waters. There are remains of numerous historic barns and otheragricultural buildings on the coastal prairie several miles south of Goat Rock Beach, indicating 19th century settlement byEurope ans; to the south, atDuncans Landing there are iron pins embedded in the sandstone bluffs as evidence of an active shipping industry here in the late 19th and early 20th century.In the era circa 1920, a sizeable
quarry ing was conducted at Goat Rock, which activity produced the apparent separation of Goat Rock from the mainland. Quarry products were transported to the mouth of the Russian River via a now abandoned rail line; some of these materials were used to attempt the construction of ajetty in the mouth area, but that project was eventually terminated.Flora and fauna
There are three distinct
habitat s present at Goat Rock Beach, including marine,littoral zone andcoastal prairie . The marine environment presentsgray whale s,harbor seal s [ [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=451 California State Beaches: Sonoma Coast State Beach] ] andCalifornia sea lion s as well as a multitude of fishspecies and other marineorganism s; in fact, several species ofanadromous fish enter the Russian Riverestuary and migrate for tens of miles up theLaguna de Santa Rosa and other Russian River tributaries. [David Cook and Jessica Martini-Lamb, "Copeland Creek Restoration Project Monitoring Plan",Sonoma County Water Agency, April, 2001] . Furthermore, a variety ofpelagic birds andshorebird s are locally in evidence. Additionally there are modestkelp beds and other marinevegetation . The littoral beach environment has fewer organisms than more southerly zones of California, because of the colder temperatures here.The coastal prairie soils on the marine terrace above the beach are moderately well drained and granular with moderate soil permeability; these features manifest high erosion potential and moderately high bio-productivity.
Acid ity of these loamy soils is medium to high, and thus some vegetative stunting and hospitality to rare plants is offered; however the tree stunting is not as pronounced as farther north along the Mendocino coast, which presents extensive and exaggeratedpygmy forest s. The upland environment on thecoastal prairie offers a range ofgrass species andwildflower s including varieties oflupine ,thistle andwild oat s. The typical annual plant productivity is approximately 1500 kilograms per acre of air dried yield per annum in an abundant moisture year, and about half that amount in a very dry year. A variety of birds and mammals thrive on the coastal prairie including numerousCalifornia Mule Deer , "Odocoileus hemionus californicus".Practical matters
Due to these potential safety risks of the rip currents at Goat Rock Beach, swimming is strictly prohibited. There are restroom facilities, a parking lot, and picnic tables on site. [ [http://www.russianrivertravel.com/parks-sonomacoast.htm Sonoma Coast State Beach: Goat Rock Highlights] ] .
Hang-gliding is performed from a 150 high launch point on a high marine terrace above the southern part of Goat Rock Beach, provided the participant is in possession of USHGA card, Sonoma Wings card and signed waiver card. [ [http://www.sonomawings.com/site/goat.htm Hang-gliding at Goat Rock State Beach] ] .Popular culture
*The naming of Goat Rock is disputed, but many accounts indicate some goatherds circa early 20th century used the flat grassy top of the formation for grazing
goat s, since few other species could scale the steep slopes
*Goat Rock Beach polled as the second most popular beach venue in Sonoma County with readers of "Metroactive" [ [http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/03.23.00/best-outdoors-read-0012.html Metroactive Readers' Poll for Best of Sonoma County] ]
*The final scene of "The Goonies " was filmed at Goat Rock Beach [ [http://www.thegoonies.org/Locations.htm Locations for Filming of "The Goonies"] ] .References
External links
* [http://www.inn-california.com/sanfrancisco/Sonoma/Jenner/goatrock.html Evening Photos at Goat Rock Beach]
* [http://www.sonoma-county.org/health/eh/beach_photos.htm Sonoma County Environmental Health Department: Goat Rock Beach and other selected beach photos]ee also
*
Salt Point
*Duncans Point
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