For nearly 60 years, a windswept shoreline along the San Mateo County coast near San Gregorio has been known for more than its stunning cliffs and crashing waves.
It has also earned a reputation as one of the most famous nude beaches in California, with a colorful history of birthday suit bathers and au naturel aficionados that dates back to 1966. Now the 195-acre property, San Gregorio Ranch, located at Highway 1 and Highway 84, will enter a new chapter.
A non-profit Palo Alto environmental group, the Peninsula Open Space Trust, has signed a deal to buy the scenic property — which includes rolling pastures, a pond and nearly a mile of picturesque driftwood-strewn beach — from family of Walter Bridge, a former dairy farmer who owned it for decades until his death in 2005.
“It’s a beautiful, iconic part of the San Mateo County coastline, with stunning bluffs and a long beach,” said Gordon Clark, president of the land trust, which commonly called POST. “It’s a very rare opportunity.”
A drone view of the San Gregorio Ranch Beach, right, and land in San Gregorio, Calif., on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. In the background is San Gregorio State Beach. The Peninsula Open Space Trust is purchasing the 195-acre ranch property for $10 million. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)The land trust’s leaders want to preserve the land for wildlife, like the badgers, red-winged blackbirds and shorebirds that live there. They also want to continue public access. Clark said the group plans to work with California’s state parks department to try to add the property to San Gregorio State Beach, an adjacent, popular state park that touches its southern border.
What that means for the nude sunbathers is not entirely clear.
Until the deal closes and POST takes ownership in May, 2026, the current owners will continue charging a parking fee to access the property (currently $7 per car), as they have for generations, and allowing people who are happy to wear nothing but a smile sunbathe there. Because of the shape of the cliffs, it’s only possible to walk from San Gregorio State Beach to the nude beach at low tide, so the two are often separated.
“It’s a remarkable piece of Bay Area history,” Clark said. “In the near term we want to sustain that use.”
A drone view of the San Gregorio Ranch Beach in San Gregorio, Calif., on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The Peninsula Open Space Trust is purchasing the 195-acre property for $10 million. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)What happens after that isn’t fully clear.
State parks officials confirm they have been in discussions with POST about the land. Adding it to the state park system would expand the 452-acre San Gregorio State Beach next door, a park that already has trails, restrooms, and a self-pay machine to charge visitors a parking fee.
“We’ve been supportive of their efforts to secure the property,” said Chris Spohrer, Santa Cruz District superintendent of state parks. “We will continue to have dialogue with them to explore future possibilities.”
POST, which has preserved 90,000 acres of open space since 1977 in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, also plans to raise $4 million to study wildlife on the property, upgrade trails and help pay for staffing if it is transferred to the state.
Legally speaking, nudity isn’t allowed at California’s state beaches. But rangers usually only write citations or arrest people if others complain and they refuse to put on clothes.
As a result, there are numerous state beaches in California where people disrobe, usually in out-of-the-way coves and secluded areas, including at San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County; Gray Whale Cove State Beach near Devil’s Slide in San Mateo County; Bonny Doon Beach in Santa Cruz County and Garrapata State Park in Big Sur.
There are also multiple federally owned beaches that are part of the national park system which are popular with beachgoers-in-the-buff. Those include Baker Beach in San Francisco, and Stinson and Muir beaches in Marin County, also on an informal, usually low-profile way.
On a recent weekday afternoon, San Gregorio Ranch had fewer than half a dozen beachgoers.
Peninsula Open Space Trust President Gordon Clark, Public Access Project Manager Bryanna Whitney, Chief Marketing Officer Ben Huang and Senior Manager of Media & Communications Marti Tedesco, from right, walk along the San Gregorio Ranch Beach in San Gregorio, Calif., on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The large tree stump to the left marks the northern boundary. The trust is purchasing the 195-acre property for $10 million. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)A drone view of the San Gregorio Ranch Beach and a pond on the land in San Gregorio, Calif., on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The Peninsula Open Space Trust is purchasing the 195-acre property for $10 million. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)A drone view of the San Gregorio Ranch Beach in San Gregorio, Calif., on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The Peninsula Open Space Trust is purchasing the 195-acre property for $10 million. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)A drone view of the San Gregorio State Beach in San Gregorio, Calif., on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The Peninsula Open Space Trust is purchasing the nearby San Gregorio Ranch Beach195-acre property just to the north for $10 million. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)A sign posted on the trail down to the San Gregorio Ranch Beach in San Gregorio, Calif., on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The Peninsula Open Space Trust is purchasing the 195-acre property for $10 million. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)Peninsula Open Space Trust President Gordon Clark, Chief Marketing Officer Ben Huang, Public Access Project Manager Bryanna Whitney and Senior Manager of Media & Communications Marti Tedesco, from right, walk up the trail from the San Gregorio Ranch Beach in San Gregorio, Calif., on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The trust is purchasing the 195-acre property for $10 million. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)Show Caption1 of 6Peninsula Open Space Trust President Gordon Clark, Public Access Project Manager Bryanna Whitney, Chief Marketing Officer Ben Huang and Senior Manager of Media & Communications Marti Tedesco, from right, walk along the San Gregorio Ranch Beach in San Gregorio, Calif., on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The large tree stump to the left marks the northern boundary. The trust is purchasing the 195-acre property for $10 million. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)Expand“I love this beach. It’s very private,” said Varinka Muldawer of Santa Cruz, who was walking down the trail toward the sand where she planned to disrobe. “If there’s a divide where you could still be nude, that could work.”
Muldawer, who said she has been coming to the property for about six years, said she’s happy it won’t become the gated estate of a billionaire, and that the wildlife will be protected. But she said that the beach should remain clothing optional.
“You feel more connected with nature,” she said. “I had stress. I thought how I do I get rid of it? Get naked! I get to be myself in nature. Nobody is here. Some people frown upon it. But a lot of people respect it. We aren’t hurting anybody. This beach is a calm place in nature. People have a choice.”
Although the property is quiet now, that hasn’t always been the case.
A drone view of the San Gregorio Ranch Beach in San Gregorio, Calif., on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The large tree stump marks the northern boundary. The Peninsula Open Space Trust is purchasing the 195-acre property for $10 million. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)In 1966, Darrell Tarver, a 28-year-old Air Force veteran and senior at San Francisco State University, formed the “Committee for Free Beaches,” a counterculture group. He put fliers up on campuses in San Francisco and Berkeley urging people to visit San Gregorio in the buff. Soon more than 500 nudists each Sunday were showing up.
“Bands of enthusiastic gawkers appeared, manning spyglasses from behind the bushes; planes from nearby Half Moon Bay Airport began buzzing the beach,” TIME magazine reported that year.
One angry parent claimed his 14-year-old daughter had disrobed while visiting with another family. He demanded the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office file charges. The DA refused, saying the conduct wasn’t lewd or obscene. The dairy farmer, Bridge, began charging $1 per car, and the rest is history.
Since then the beach has been featured in articles and books listing the best nude beaches in California, the U.S. and the world, and its northern half has become a popular spot among gay men.
“You seldom run into people,” Muldawer said. “Sometimes you meet new friends in the same mindset. Most of the time, it feels like you are in your own private area.”
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