To paraphrase that haunting voice in the movie “Field of Dreams”: If you preserve it, they will come.
Ever since word got out about the opening of the spectacular Estero Americano Coast Preserve, just south of Bodega Bay, outdoor enthusiasts have arrived in droves, from all over the Bay Area and beyond.
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The 547-acre parcel, formerly the Bottarini Ranch, is owned and managed by The Wildlands Conservancy, which acquired it in 2015, following a purchase put together by the nonprofit Sonoma Land Trust. The property features 5 miles of trails wending through coastal prairies, along dramatic bluffs and down to a remote beach.
On a recent, sunny Saturday a gaggle of hikers leaving the preserve passed two couples on their way in.
Surveying the exiting group, one of the new arrivals, a rangy man in a white ballcap, declared, “Everyone looks so happy!”
Everyone is not happy.
Where to park?
For all the flora it offers and 360-degree views it commands – of the Pacific Ocean and Farallon Islands and the fjord-like valley carved by the estero, or tidal estuary, which serves as the border dividing Marin and Sonoma counties – the preserve does have a few flaws, the most glaring of which is this:
No dedicated parking lot.
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Hikers heeding the siren’s call of those new trails must rely on street parking in the sleepy subdivision of Bodega Harbour, a posh enclave of homes overlooking the water and adjacent to a golf course.
A hiker descending the steps to the Pacific on the Shorttail Gulch trail, part of the recently opened Estero Americano Coast Preserve just south of Bodega Bay (Austin Murphy) Austin MurphyThis has led, on weekends and even some weekdays, to unprecedented congestion on Osprey Drive, and other narrow byways near the Shorttail Gulch trailhead – which provides the only access to the new preserve.
Between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. on that bluebird Saturday, Jan. 24, cars were parked nearly the length of Osprey Drive, around half a mile. As visitors pulled out, newcomers swiftly took their spots.
A security guard near the trailhead, aided by a Wildlands Conservancy staff member, did his best to keep motorists from parking on both sides of the street, with only partial success. Osprey is between 21 and 26 feet wide. Cars parked on both sides of that road “can create real traffic issues,” and risk blocking emergency vehicles, said John Loughlin, a local resident.
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“This is a sensitive environmental area,” he said. “It’s not designed for that.”
While the cars “are a problem,” said Bodega Harbour resident Tina Podolak, “I’m concerned about the habitat that’s being disrupted by this many people.”
‘It went viral’
Once the novelty of the park wears off, representatives of The Wildlands Conservancy believe, the numbers of cars parked in the neighborhood, and people in the preserve, will level off and become much more manageable.
But Loughlin and his neighbors aren’t expecting relief anytime soon. A Jan. 10 San Francisco Chronicle story announcing the preserve’s opening was followed quickly by stories in SFGate, Travel + Leisure, Smithsonian magazine, and other outlets.
Beth SchlankerPeople hike on the Shorttail Gulch Trail in the Estero Americano Coast Preserve near Bodega Bay Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Beth Schlanker / The Press-Democrat) People hike on the Shorttail Gulch Trail in the Estero Americano Coast Preserve near Bodega Bay Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Beth Schlanker / The Press-Democrat) People park on Osprey Drive near the Shorttail Gulch Trailhead in the Estero Americano Coast Preserve near Bodega Bay Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Beth Schlanker / The Press-Democrat) People park on Osprey Drive near the Shorttail Gulch Trailhead in the Estero Americano Coast Preserve near Bodega Bay Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Beth Schlanker / The Press-Democrat) People gather at the Shorttail Gulch Trailhead near Osprey Drive to access the Estero Americano Coast Preserve near Bodega Bay Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Beth Schlanker / The Press-Democrat) People hike on the Shorttail Gulch Trail in the Estero Americano Coast Preserve near Bodega Bay Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Beth Schlanker / The Press-Democrat) Show CaptionBeth Schlanker1 of 6People hike on the Shorttail Gulch Trail in the Estero Americano Coast Preserve near Bodega Bay Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Beth Schlanker / The Press-Democrat) Expand“It went viral,” noted Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, whose district includes Bodega Bay.
To the dismay and alarm of some residents, the preserve’s offerings now pop up on the popular mobile app AllTrails, which allows users to search for trails by location.
The crowds that came over the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend were “not an anomaly,” said Loughlin. “This is not a one-shot deal.”
He and his neighbors expressed their concerns and frustrations at a Jan. 22 meeting of the county’s Coast Municipal Advisory Council, attended by Hopkins and Ryan Berger, the Sonoma Coast Preserves Manager for The Wildlands Conservancy.
One woman spoke of how, on congested days, just “getting out of our driveway is becoming unsafe.”
Another man, who fretted about what all the traffic might do to property values, complained, “We moved back here for quiet enjoyment. We’re losing that now.”
Hikers at the trailhead of the Shorttail Gulch Trail in Bodega Harbour, part the recently opened Estero Americano Coast Preserve. (Austin Murphy)Fallout from flawed process, neighbors say
When Permit Sonoma was reviewing the plan proposing an easement to the preserve, the county’s Board of Supervisors decided by consent, without public discussion, to “consolidate” the permit, ceding review of the proposal to the California Coastal Commission, which voted in November 2024 to approve it.
That streamlined process rankled Bodega Harbour residents who’d been told they would have opportunities to air their concerns at county hearings.
For over five years, said Lisa Beaty at the CMAC event in Bodega Bay, she and her neighbors have been warning about the very issues now arising on crowded days. “And every step of the way, we’ve been ignored, dismissed and disrespected,” she said.
Bob Podolak, who described himself as a “neighbor” of the preserve, read aloud from a section of the Wildland Conservancy’s website titled “Opening New Lands to the Public, the Right Way.”
Such work, he narrated, “involves far more than building a trailhead. It requires careful navigation of complex planning, resource studies, and permitting processes in close collaboration with tribal communities and neighbors.”
Looking up from that text, Podolak added, “This has not been, in any way, shape or form, a shared vision for managed use by the public.”
Next steps?
Several residents have urged the conservancy to consider adopting a reservations system for the preserve.
Berger and others from The Wildland Conservancy met Wednesday afternoon in an “emergency working group meeting” with input from “partners and stakeholders” including the Bodega Harbour Homeowners Association, the Coastal Commission, Sonoma County’s Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, the county’s Public Infrastructure and Regional Parks departments, and California Highway Patrol.
Asked if The Wildlands Conservancy might consider a reservation system, and if, in retrospect, the preserve might have been opened too soon, Berger did not answer those questions, replying instead with an emailed, joint statement from the Conservancy and the Bodega Harbour HOA.
Long before “recent media attention led to a significant increase in visitation to the preserve,” it said, those two entities, “had been working together to anticipate potential challenges and identify constructive, solutions-focused approaches related to parking, traffic, safety, and waste management.”
Hopkins poured cold water on the idea of a reservations system.
“I question how we would actually implement” such an arrangement, she said after the meeting.
“Are you going to have a guard turning someone away? I think that’s what that would look like.”
She continued: “There are public tax dollars that went into this project.” The county Open Space District contributed $1.95 million towards the $3.8 million purchase price of the property, which was also funded by the State Coastal Conservancy and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
“And we live in a state that has codified the right to access our coastline.”
Beachgoers at Shorttail Gulch Beach on Bodega Bay, in what is now part of the Estero Americano Coast Preserve. (Austin Murphy)Hopkins agreed that the county needs to swiftly address the parking concerns. “We need to make sure that traffic – including larger trucks and emergency vehicles – are able to flow freely,” she said.
She also swatted down suggestions that the county consider allowing access to the preserve via Estero Lane, a narrow, single-lane dirt road through private property that would create more problems than it would solve, said Hopkins.
In the near term, she told attendees at the advisory panel meeting, the county will paint curbs red on one side of the streets near the trailhead, to prevent cars from parking on both sides.
That approach, several neighbors pointed out, will merely push traffic into other, nearby streets in the subdivision.
Meanwhile, said Hopkins, she’s working hard to get before the board in March a parking ordinance that would allow the county to install “No Parking” signs in Bodega Harbour. In the meantime, she encouraged residents to attend a Feb. 25 town hall meeting, 6 p.m. at the Bodega Bay Grange, for further discussion.
“Part of the challenge,” she said, “is that there wasn’t a problem until (the preserve) suddenly got popular.
“Even though there were previously expressed concerns about parking, they didn’t come true until suddenly there was a beautiful holiday weekend, and it felt like everyone in the world showed up, in that moment.”
You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @ausmurph88.
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