Goat Rock Beach has been closed for the last four months due to a landslide that dropped a section of the road. The State Parks System has closed the beach indefinately until the slide dries out and they figure out how to repair it.
My dad volunteers at the Jenner Visitors Center for the State Parks System and an organization called Stewarts of Slavianka. "Slavianka" was the Russian name for the Russian River. The Stewards train and organize volunteers to stand out on the spit and keep people from getting too close to the harbor seals hauled out to have their pups every spring. Even though the beach is closed, they still have volunteers stand guard over the seals on weekends. Because of this, dad has a pass to allow him to drive in close to the road damage at Goat Rock Beach. We planned a farther-son trip out here: Dad parked at the top of the washout and walked down while I paddled out from Jenner to meet him.
Dad made it to the beach before me and I caught up with him on the shore of the river. He followed me along the spit for a while and then I pulled the kayak up to walk along with him. We walked down near the end of the spit and looked at the seals. Then I walked dad back up to his car so I could assess the road damage myself.
I must admit it looked very impressive: A huge section of the hillside had slumped down more than a meter taking 100 meters of road with it. There is a drop at the edge of the slump, then the road continues as if nothing was wrong. Where the road splits to go to two parking lots there is a sudden step up again to the old road level. But if you turn right that road gradually rises to the old level with just a few cracks in the asphalt. Down this branch of the road the parks department has a house behind the dunes where one of the rangers live. They built a gravel ramp over the first drop in the road and apparently the ranger's two-wheel drive vehicle has no problem getting down and back up. I would have no qualms about taking my cars down here. I think the parks department should put some asphalt over their ramp and let the public back in. Another ramp on the other end of the slump would give access to the second parking lot behind Goat Rock itself, but this would not be necessary. The resulting rough road does not justify the park being closed for the last four months, in my humble opinion, or for the years it is probably going to take them to get around to doing something new.
There was no wind to speak of and after walking back down the road and across the beach I had a calm flat paddle back to my car.