Swimming
Lifeguarded Beaches
Spring Lake Swimming Lagoon
Spring Lake Regional Park features a summer swimming lagoon for recreational swimming and lap swimming with lifeguards on duty daily. Spring Lake’s lagoon is open for the season Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day (click here for hours of operation). Swimming in the Spring Lake lagoon and playing on the beach are always free, with no reservations needed. The lagoon is chlorinated, filtered and tested to ensure water quality exceeds state standards. Lifeguards are on duty, and free life jackets are available. The lagoon also features lawns shaded by redwoods and multiple picnic sites. Parking fee required or free with a Regional Parks membership.
Spring Lake's swimming lagoon features a separate Water Park with an inflatable playground of floating slides, climbing walls, bridges, balance beams, jumps, an in-water sports court and more. The Water Park is open for the season Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day (click here for hours of operation). Part playground and part obstacle course, the Water Park is available for adults and kids 6 years or older and at least 42 inches tall. Lifejackets are provided. Buy tickets in advance at SoCoParks.org/WaterPark. Parking fee required or free with a Regional Parks membership.
Healdsburg Veterans Memorial Beach provides access to the Russian River for wading, swimming, boating, sunbathing and fishing. A temporary dam in place from July through Labor Day creates a popular swimming area along the park's wide, sandy beach just south of the city's historic, steel-truss Memorial Bridget. Lifeguards are on duty daily during the summer, and life jackets are available for free use. Beach admission is free. Parking fee required or free with a Regional Parks membership.
Russian River Beaches
Steelhead Beach, Forestville River Access, Sunset Beach and other Regional Park beaches provide access to the Russian River for fishing, swimming, boating, water sports and sunbathing. Lifeguards patrol river parks intermittently Fridays through Sundays in the summer, beginning Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, and free life jackets are available for use at Del Rio Woods, Steelhead Beach, Forestville River Access and Sunset beaches at that time. Please use caution if you enter the water. Cell phone reception is limited or non-existent at some beaches and calling 911 is not always possible. Wear a life jacket and follow rules on posted signs. Know your abilities. Swim with a companion and be aware of potentially hazardous conditions, such as drop offs and currents.
Sonoma Coast Beaches
Regional Park beaches along the Sonoma Coast are not patrolled by lifeguards. With the exception of Doran Regional Park, swimming or wading in the ocean is not advised because of powerful waves and currents. If visiting the coast, check ocean-use policies and learn about riptides and sleeper waves.
Water Safety
Vamos a Nadar
Teaching young children and families how to be safe around water continues to be an urgent summertime issue. Regional Parks, in addition to providing Russian River Patrol lifeguards at our most frequently visited recreation sites, offers the popular bilingual Vamos a Nadar (Let’s go Swimming) water safety program.
Designed to reduce drowning deaths in our community, Vamos a Nadar has provided free water safety and swimming lessons to thousands of young people and their families in Sonoma County since launching in 2004. The program partners with local pools, swim instructors and Regional Parks lifeguards to teach kids ages 5 and up and their parents about how to stay safe around pools, rivers and lakes.
Vamos a Nadar typically serves families with limited resources who otherwise may not be able to afford swim lessons. After each workshop, families are invited to enjoy and explore the swimming areas together. Each family also receives a coupon for additional swim lessons at all local pools involved in the program.
Russian River Patrol
The award-winning Russian River safety patrol is a roving team of lifeguards who patrol river beaches intermittently at Del Rio Woods, Forestville River Access, Steelhead and Sunset beaches Fridays through Mondays, starting Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. They share information about staying safe on the water and help swimmers avoid dangerous situations.
Regional Parks thanks the following sponsors and supporters:
- Sonoma County Parks Foundation
- Sonoma Water
- The Heck Foundation
- Russian River Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
- United States Lifesaving Association
Other water safety resources
Free loaner life jackets at river beaches (seasonally)
Wearing a life jacket is the best way to stay safe on the Russian River; there are unseen hazards and changing conditions on the river. Beginning Memorial Day weekend, through Labor Day, loaner life jackets are available for us at the following Regional Park Russian River beaches: Del Rio Woods, Healdsburg Veterans Memorial Beach, Steelhead Beach, Forestville River Access and Sunset Beach. Borrow one for the day and return it when you leave.
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