A little bit about Gerstle for those that have not been there.
Gerstle cove is in Salt Point State Park.
The cove itself is turned around so when heading back to the beach from a dive you are actually heading north.
This makes it one of the flattest and best protected coves on the north coast. Gerstle cove is also a reserve which means nothing can be touched or taken within the boundries of the cove. There are yellow markers on the outside of the cove that mark where the boundry line is.
The bottom terrian is all large rocks except for a small area at the beach which is sandy. This makes it nice to put fins on in chest deep water. The main part of the beach itself is cobble rock, all about the size of soccer balls with a few smaller and a few bigger. The main concern with the rocks is the entry and exit. At low tide the rocks can get very slippery and it's easy to fall and twist and ankle, so care must be taken when navigating the rocks on the beach.
The beach itself is very small and quiet, it's also protected from the wind. When the wind is howling up in the parking lot it's calm and warm down on the beach.
Most of the cove is shallow. The outside boundry to the cove is an average of 20 feet deep. Moving out of the cove it begins to get deeper and deeper. I have found 90 feet outside of Gerstle on a shore dive.
There is a whole series of pinnacles outside of the cove that vary in size and there are also several cool swim throughs along the southerly side of the cove.
Way outside of the cove is the great pinnacle which is profuse with growth and comes to within about 12 feet of the surface, and cascades down to a boulder bottom at about 70 feet deep on the outside. There is a very large anchor laying on the outside of the pinnacle that used to hold a buoy to mark the pinnacle for the old logging schooners from back in the 1860's. There are actually many anchors outside of the cove, as many as eight different anchors are reported to be scattered in and outside of the cove. All these anchors where used to hold bouys which were caught by a deckhand with a long pole then the crew would hand pull the ship bouy by bouy into the cove with ropes so it could be loaded with logs.
The cove itself holds a ton of life from several nudi's to huge abalone that are allowed to grow to gigantic perportions due to it being a no take zone. There is a lot of fish life as well. It's a very good photography spot when the conditions are right.
Another thing that's nice about Gerstle is that you can back your car down the service road about 50 feet away from the beach to load and unload gear. However you must park your car in the parking lot when not loading or unloading. There is also an $8.00 day use fee for the park payable at the iron ranger unless the booth happens to be manned.
To get there:
Coming from the Bay Area go north on hwy 101 to the town of Cotati (about 45 minutes north of GG bridge) take the Hwy 116 exit and go west towards Sebastopol. When you get to Sebastopol make a left at hwy 12 and go west towards Bodega Bay. When you get to hwy 1 turn right and head north. When you get to Jenner by the sea you have about 17 miles to go. Gerstle cove will be on the left and it will be clearly marked with a state park monument sign.
Drive all the way down to the main parking lot and that's where we'll be.
