Tiffany Beach in foreground, Swede's Beach at rear
Foot of Valley St. near Bridgeway, Sausalito CA 94965 (See Map Below)
Neighborhood: Old Town. No rest rooms or water. Very limited street parking nearby. Click here to return to the Sausalito Parks Index Page.
Swede's Beach is Ground Zero in the history of Sausalito: this is where the first ships stopped for fresh water in the 1830's, leading to the first European settlement of Sausalito almost 200 years ago.
Today the tiny beach is adjacent to a few old pilings from the 19th century piers. It's reached via a tiny, secluded stairway at the end of Valley St., with a small bench at the bottom on the white sand beach.
Note: Since 1952 the Sausalito-Marin City Sanitary District has pumped its sewer effluent into the Bay at the foot of Main St., next to Swede's Beach. If there is a sewage overflow (which most often happens with the rains of winter) warning signs will be posted to alert people to stay away.
Whether you want to let your dogs, yourself or your kids play in the treated sewage water (which meets all legal health standards for being pumped back intop the Bay) is a personal decision. Our editors who've lived in the area have seen people playing three feet from the sewage outflow pipe with their babies in the water, and we routinely see people walk their dogs through the stream. We love the area around Swede's Beach, but as our personal choice we do not go in the water here.
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