Fort Ross Reef

Fort Ross Reef is a small protected cove roughly a mile south of the main Fort Ross visitor area, reached by a short trail from the Reef Campground day-use lot. At the water's edge, the entry is gradual, sand and cobble underfoot, sheltered by rock on both flanks. Inside the cove, the bottom runs 5 to 20 feet, and a north-side reef holds shallow structure at 15 to 20 feet before dropping onto a gradual outer slope to about 40 feet.

Cobble and boulder line the cove floor and the north-side reef. Much of that structure now sits bare after the sea urchin barrens that spread across this coast, and that unkelped rock is a rocky reef biome. Seasonal bull kelp still returns to the outer edge of the reef through the warmer months, an annual single-stipe growth that dies back each winter, and that kelp is the kelp forest biome. The canopy is thinner than before the 2014 to 2019 collapse.

The site earned its beginner-abalone reputation in the decades before the closure, because the north-side reef held legal shallow abalone right at 15 to 20 feet. Recreational take of abalone has been closed statewide since 2018 and remains closed through at least 2036. Freediving and scuba are the working uses today, along with shore fishing from the rocks. The interior is workable in most conditions; the outer slope closes out on northwest swell.

Reef Campground has a paved day-use lot with restrooms, and the day-use fee is $10 per vehicle through the operating season, April 1 to November 30. The gate is closed off-season, and access is walk-in only. Enforcement is active.

Fishing and spearfishing are legal here under standard California regulations. The site sits between the Russian River SMCA to the south and the Salt Point SMCA to the north and inside neither.