DIRECTIONS:
Park in the Shell Beach parking lot, and take the Kortum trail south towards Wright's Beach.
TIPS FOR YOUR VISIT
This is an easy hike if you stay on the Kortum trail -- there is very little change in elevation. To get down to Shell Beach, there are very steep stairs. To get down to Furlong Gulch Beach, there is a steep path.
There are restrooms at the Shell Beach parking lot.
Thimbleberries start getting ripe in July. Get them before the birds do.
KIDS:
The beaches are great for kids. There is a creek that flows onto the beach at Furlong Gulch.
HISTORY:
The trail is named after Jack Kortum, a Sonoma Co. legislator and conservationist largely responsible for the California Coastal Act of 1976.
Kortum Trail ... a special coastal perspective, on an easy bluff-top trail that winds through coastal prairie ...
Terry Wright Geology:
SHELL BEACH: A CLOSE LOOK AT A SUBDUCTION ZONE A short trail leads to the beach where the complex structure and rocks of the Franciscan Complex lie out like a smorgasbord for hungry geologists.
