46 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {due west} PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF ADAM POTTS / COURTESY OF THE SEA RANCH LODGE About a two-and-a-halfhour drive north of San Francisco, Sea Ranch encompasses only about 2,200 private homes and undeveloped lots; a few resident recreation centers; a handful of small businesses; a private airstrip; and The Sea Ranch Lodge, one of the oldest buildings in the community, built in 1968. For a long time, the land that is now The Sea Ranch was only visited seasonally by the native Pomo people, who gathered shellfish and kelp from the shoreline. Starting in the 1800s, it was used for ranching. The Sea Ranch was conceived in 1964 when Oceanic Properties architect and There really isn’t much to do at The Sea Ranch—a predominantly residential community located on a remote, ruggedly beautiful 10-mile stretch of coastline at the northern boundary of Sonoma County—but that is precisely the attraction. It is, rather, a place to watch the waves crash against the shoreline below the cliffs; explore rocky tidepools; wander unspoiled beaches strewn with seashells; feel the power of the wind as it rushes over the grassy bluffs and through the cypress, pine and fir trees; and listen to the plaintive bleating of sheep grazing on the hillsides, part of the community’s wildfire mitigation efforts, which also happens to add to the pastoral atmosphere.
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