The first settler on Bolinas Lagoon was Rafael Garcia, who arrived in 1836. His brother Gregorio and sister-in-law Ramona Garcia Briones received the Rancho Las Baulines land grant in 1846 -- Ramona would eventually die at the age of 107, believed to be the oldest woman in California. Nathan and Rose Stinson established the first campground at what was then called Willow Camp in the 1870s, and the beach took their name. The town sits at the base of Mount Tamalpais, at the end of a winding road that offers spectacular views but demands the driver's full attention. It is the kind of place you have to want to reach -- which is precisely what has preserved its character.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, when the San Francisco music scene began to disperse, many of its luminaries settled in Marin County. Stinson Beach attracted more than its share: Jerry Garcia, Steve Miller, the Rowan Brothers, Peter Rowan, David Grisman, and Keith and Donna Godchaux of the Grateful Dead all lived there at various times. George Frayne -- better known as Commander Cody -- worked out of a converted garage studio on Calle Del Embarcadero and wrote 'Midnight on The Strand' about the beach. The poet Robert Duncan wrote his influential collection Opening the Field at a house here. It was, for a brief period, a place where you could run into a rock legend at the general store.

Stinson Beach hosts two events that capture its personality. On the second Sunday of June, it serves as the finish line for the Dipsea Race, the second-oldest footrace in the United States, which winds over Mount Tamalpais from Mill Valley. In early fall, the California Road Club holds its Mount Tamalpais Hill Climb, one of the West's oldest bicycle races. But the Fourth of July tug-of-war with Bolinas is the event that defines the community's spirit -- a good-natured rivalry between two small towns separated by an inlet and united by a shared determination to remain eccentric. The 'Cuisine on the Green' festival each May fills the Village Green with local food and music, benefiting the Community Center that has anchored civic life since the Stinson and FitzHenry families donated the land.

Stinson Beach has been a filming location for Basic Instinct, The Fog, Play It Again Sam, and the 2020 adaptation of The Invisible Man. It was mentioned in an episode of M*A*S*H when BJ wired money home for a one-acre lot with 'trees, the beach, a view of San Francisco -- everything!' Garrison Keillor wrote a four-page essay about how thinking of Stinson Beach helps him sleep. But the beach also has a darker history: great white sharks patrol these waters, and a young surfer's recovery from a shark attack here became the subject of the book Far from Shore. The beach is beautiful and the water is cold, in every sense.