Shelter Cove is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California, United States on California's Lost Coast. Lying where the King Range meets the Pacific Ocean, it is a principal population center in the Lost Coast region. A 9-hole golf course surrounds the one-runway Shelter Cove Airport at the center of Shelter Cove's commercial district. Utilities are provided by the Humboldt County Resort Improvement District #1 and boating access to the sea is managed by the Humboldt Bay Harbor Recreation & Conservation District.

Shelter Cove shares a ZIP code with the hamlet of Whitethorn, California, located to the southeast. Sinkyone Wilderness State Park is about 6 miles (10 km) south of Shelter Cove on the coast. There are also state parks such as Black Sands Beach, Mal Coombs Park, Seal Rock Picnic Area and Abalone Point. Much of the land around Shelter Cove belongs to the Kings Range National Conservation Area, managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The nearest supermarket and other amenities not available in Shelter Cove are in the towns of Redway and Garberville in the U.S. 101 corridor, about twenty miles of winding county roads to the east.

The ZIP Code is 95589. The community is inside area code 707.