Stunning Views From Inverness Ridge

Inverness is one of West Marin’s finest coastal communities along the shore of Tomales Bay where some 1400 call it their full-time residence, and a much larger group, their part-time home.
It’s a destination for visitors, offering a number of natural features to explore, from Tomales Bay’s beautiful sandy beaches to the Lighthouse at the tip of Point Reyes some 20 miles beyond Inverness’s small village.
Boating, especially sailing, is a popular recreation, for locals. There is a small public marina, a few private piers, and the Inverness Yacht Club. Many swimmers push off from Chicken Ranch Beach, a coveted shallow shore area. Other beaches in the area have similar descriptive names like Heart’s Desire, Indian Beach, and Shell and Pebble Beaches.
Surrounded by Point Reyes National Seashore, a 70,000-acre open space treasure, Inverness is a haven for hikers, birders, picnickers and beachcombers. The park’s Bear Valley visitor center stands south of the village near the hamlet of Olema.
North of Olema and east of Inverness is the vibrant town of Point Reyes Station which offers shops, restaurants, groceries, foodie stores, and entertainment venues.
In the 1890s, the Inverness region became the property of James Shafter, who was an early developer. It became a summer resort where people from San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland came to camp, hike, and swim in Tomales Bay. Many built small summer cabins that still exist today.
Over the years as highway travel improved, more and more made Inverness their primary residence, and as time went on newer homes were constructed on Inverness ridge, while the village remained largely unchanged.
Today, the viewscape -vistas of the bay, Black Mountain and rolling Bolinas Ridge, appears as it did in earlier times. Legislation preserves the entire area, and for the near future – and some predict in perpetuity - its open and natural landscape will remain undeveloped.