Ocean Cove is located at a sharp bend in Highway 1, 17 miles North of Jenner. Here you'll find a well-stocked general store, and campground. This site is a popular staging area for Northern California dive clubs and dive shops.
Ocean Cove is on private property, and there is a trespass fee for to enter the site on foot or in your vehicle. This is also a popular 20-acre camping area, with picnic tables, fire pits, hot showers, and a boat ramp. There is a gravel road running from the camp area down to the beach with a nice ramp for easily launching small boats. You can pay for camping or entering the area at the general store on the main road.
Although this area is a popular and well-used dive site, it still has a good population of abalone, rockfish, and ling cod. There are many different entry areas into the water here. On all sites, you'll find a rocky, rugged bottom terrain, kelp, and a healthy population of abalone and rockfish.
Take Highway 1 17 miles North of Jenner. Heading North, the road will make a sharp bend to the left, and you'll see the historic general store on the right side, and access to the campground and dive site is on the left. Salt Point lodge is within walking distance, just up the road, and offers good food for those not excited about cooking their own while camping.
From the Ocean Cove campground there is a footpath that will lead you North to Stillwater Cove, and there are many accessible dive sites available along this shoreline. The Ocean Cove area tends to get hammered pretty hard by incoming swells, so be sure to carefully evaluate conditions before entering the water.
Within the cove is a great place to launch a kayak or inflatable boat. The bottom profile is rocky and there are good numbers of rockfish and abalone in the area for both freedivers and scuba divers.
This site is not as protected as many of the other coves on the North Coast, however still offers more protection from incoming swells than the open cliff faces and beaches many dive when the weather is good. If you don't have a dive buddy, you'll have a good chance of finding one here, as it's a very popular site.
