Stillwater Cove Regional Park
Timber Cove · Sonoma County · California
Visibility Breakdown
Visibility by position
Solid = diver report · outlined = today's forecast
Post Break: The range past where any waves are forming, where the water starts to have a significant increase in visibility. There might be some sediment here, but swell energy is diffused and the water is calmer.
Open Water: This zone is far out enough from the shore that the water is at its clearest. It’s deep enough that sediment is not disturbed by the wave energy at the surface. Haze can sit near the surface, so the water is usually clearer the deeper you go.
Through the day
Today's visibility readings at this spot, shown at the hour each one was taken.
Every bar is a reading for the Post Break zone.
This chart shows measured diver reports only.
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Today's forecast
Updated 4:38 PM PT today · October 13, 2026Dawn is the clearest window — onshore wind picks up by late morning and surface chop stirs the bottom through the afternoon.
7-Day Forecast
Map · getting there
38.546° N · 123.296° W
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Open in Apple MapsAbout Stillwater Cove Regional Park
Stillwater Cove Regional Park sits about 3.5 miles south of Salt Point State Park, and its crescent-shaped cove is one of the more sheltered dive sites on the Sonoma Coast. The day-use lot is east of Highway 1; the beach is on the west side, reached by the 0.3-mile Cove Trail across the road. Depths inside Stillwater Cove Regional Park's namesake cove run 5 to 20 feet, and the outer reef along either flank goes 20 to 35 feet.
The sand and pebble crescent is a surf zone biome, with shore break on any real swell. Cobble and boulder wrap both flanks of the cove, and much of that structure now sits bare after the sea urchin barrens took hold, so that unkelped reef is a rocky reef biome. Bull kelp returns seasonally to the outer edge, an annual single-stipe growth that dies back through winter, and that patchy kelp is the kelp forest biome. The canopy is thinner than before the 2014 to 2019 collapse.
The Fort Ross Schoolhouse stands on the park grounds, a 19th-century one-room schoolhouse relocated to Stillwater Cove Regional Park for preservation.
Scuba, freediving, and ocean kayaking are the working uses, with tidepooling and shore fishing on calmer days. A small-craft pullout near the cove entrance handles kayaks and stand-up paddleboards. The reef was one of the beginner-abalone coves through the 2010s, but that fishery has been closed statewide since 2018.
Parking is the paved day-use lot east of Highway 1, with restrooms on site. The day-use fee is $8 per vehicle, and Sonoma County Regional Parks members enter free.
Fishing and spearfishing are legal here under standard California regulations. The Salt Point SMCA southern boundary lies roughly 0.75 nautical miles to the north, and take of anything other than finfish is prohibited inside that line.
Surf Zone
The surf zone biome consists of sandy beaches and breaking waves. The action of surf disturbing the sand and kicking it up exposes marine invertebrates, buried in their shallow dens. This natural exposure of invertebrates attracts all kinds of fish, looking for an easy meal. Learn more about this biome and the species found in it by clicking the link below.
Learn more in the Biome Glossary
Rocky Reef
The rocky reef biome is bare rock, boulder, and cobble structure without a kelp canopy above it. The hard relief and its crevices shelter invertebrates and reef fish, and the structure concentrates life that the surrounding sand cannot hold. Learn more about this biome and the species found in it by clicking the link below.
Learn more in the Biome Glossary
Kelp Forest
The kelp forest biome is giant kelp anchored to rocky bottom and growing up through the water column. The canopy and stipes form a three-dimensional habitat that shelters fish, invertebrates, and the predators that hunt them. Learn more about this biome and the species found in it by clicking the link below.
Learn more in the Biome GlossaryTarget Fish Species
The fish found at Stillwater Cove Regional Park are being researched for the Ichthyopedia. This section fills in as species are mapped to this beach.
Browse the Ichthyopedia →Spot strategies
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