Where the Petaluma River slides out into San Pablo Bay, the land goes flat and wide: salt marsh, tidal sloughs, hayfields and long levees, with the brown hills of Marin and Sonoma rising behind and the bay stretching away grey-blue to the east. Black Point and Green Point are two small communities on the edge of this marsh, at the north-eastern corner of Novato, a few hundred houses among oaks and eucalyptus, with water on three sides.
The scenery is all about space and light. On a clear morning you can see Mount Tamalpais to the south-west and Mount Diablo far across the bay, and the marshes are full of birds: egrets, herons, avocets, pelicans and huge flocks of ducks and shorebirds in winter. The Sonoma Baylands and the restored wetlands along the river are important stops on the Pacific Flyway, the migration route for millions of birds. In late afternoon, when the low sun turns the marsh gold and the water silver, it is beautiful.
Highway 37 runs right through here, linking Marin to Vallejo and the Napa Valley, and it is notorious. It is a two-lane road on low land along the bay, often congested with commuters and weekend traffic, and parts of it flood during winter storms and king tides; plans to raise it have been debated for years. It is a beautiful road when it is quiet, flat and straight across the marsh, but at rush hour it can be a long, slow crawl.
There is a bit of rock and roll history nearby. Just north of Novato, Olompali State Historic Park preserves the ruins of an old ranch where the Grateful Dead lived in 1966, throwing legendary parties; the site also has a long Native American history, as a village of the Coast Miwok people. Burdell Mountain, above it, has trails and views over the bay.
Novato, about five kilometres away, has fuel, food and all services, and Petaluma, a short ride north, is a charming old river town with a historic downtown and good restaurants. Stop at a pullout along the river, kill the engine and listen to the birds: it is a strangely peaceful place, so close to the busy Bay Area.