Tennessee Cove

View of Tennessee Cove

Quick Facts

Amenities

1 listed

Scenic View/Photo Spot

Tennessee Cove is a popular destination for a picnic or for a casual hang at the end of Tennessee Valley trail. The cove boasts a broad beach surrounded by high, rocky bluffs. A short side trail will take you up a bluff for excellent views from old coastal defense observation posts.

If you venture near the water, be careful and use caution. Never turn your back on the ocean.

Tragedy at Sea

The SS Tennessee was the first American steamship reassigned for service in the Panama to San Francisco run. On her first Pacific voyage in 1849, she carried only 15 passengers because of rough storms, but in March of 1850, she arrived in Panama after 57 days at sea to a waiting throng of 3,000 seeking passage to San Francisco.


The Tennessee brought thousands of gold-seeking fortune hunters to the city for three more years until a fateful, foggy day in March, when she ran aground in the Headlands. All souls were lost and the site of the wreck was renamed Tennessee Cove to honor those lost.

Geology of Tennessee Cove

Tennessee Cove is made up of the sedimentary rock, chert. The rocks here at the cove are chock full of radiolaria fossils. 'Radiolaria' is a big word for ocean faring single-celled organisms. These little guys are smaller than a grain of sand and come in a variety of symmetrical shapes. For hundreds of millions of years, they have been embedded in the rocks as fossilized mineral skeletons. You can see them with a standard magnifier.