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As you can see on the map, Point Reyes (pronounced "rays") National
Seashore is just a short trip west from the base camp for NSXPO 2003, San
Rafael. I jumped on the Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in the morning and hit
the park's Bear Valley visitor center / entrance at Olema in pretty short
order. For info on Point Reyes, go to
http://www.nps.gov/pore/visit.htm and if you are interested in a nice detailed park map showing all the
areas, roads, trails, points of interest, described below, go to
http://www.nps.gov/pore/visit_maps.htm |
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Right at the Bear Valley Visitor Center is the Earthquake Trail, a short
(0.6 mile) paved loop that explores the San Andreas Fault Zone. A bunch of
"interpretive signs" describe the geology and earthquake history of the
area. The fence on the left used to be part of the fence on the right.
They shifted 16' apart in the 1906 earthquake. (the non-matching fence in
the background is unrelated - it's just to keep people from climbing the
tree). The blue post is located right on the fault line. |
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This is with my back to the fence in the above photo. The blue posts
mark the fault line. This is the area where the cow allegedly fell into the
ground in the 1906 quake. |
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These little lizards are all over the place throughout the SF Bay area. |
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If you look at the detailed park map, this Point Reyes Beach North,
facing south. It was cold and windy so there wasn't much beach activity
other than one lady sitting on a sand dune reading a book. |
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This is facing north at Point Reyes Beach North. Frankly the South Beach
area looked identical so I didn't take any pictures. If you want, just look
at these pictures again and just pretend they are the South beach section
and it'll be the same thing. |
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Despite what seems to be a pretty harsh growing climate, there was a
surprising amount of ground cover. Here's a flow growing up from the sand. |
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The predominant ground cover in this area is this plant, I believe it is
(or is a relative of) what is commonly called an ice plant. I think it's edible
but I didn't test that theory. It is ubiquitous throughout the western
coastal section of Point Reyes. |
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Bird on a fence picture. How original. |
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Headed up the hill to go down the hill to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. If
you look at the map above this is at the very westernmost tip that sticks
out into the Pacific. This photo is looking north. |
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To get to the lighthouse, you have to park, then hike up a hill, then
down 300 vertical feet of stairs to the lighthouse. They put it down closer
to the water to keep it under the fog bank. |
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Almost to the top of the hill. It looks about the same height in the
photo but it's probably 100' up from the parking area. The coast is just too
far away to notice that small a change. |
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Interesting geology... You can see sedimentary layers and conglomerate.
The conglomerate is pretty wild, with big rocks that leave holes when they
fall out. |
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This is how they used to collect rain water up at the lighthouse. The
rain would run down the paved areas and collect in the cistern underneath
the dome. Not very pretty but I guess it was functional. |
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The view from the top one direction |
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The view from the top in the other direction |
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Close-up of the area conglomerate rock |
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These are the holes I mentioned earlier that are left when the rocks
weather out of the conglomerate material. Weird. |
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Looking straight down. |
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Rocks down below |
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The view from the top down to the lighthouse. Lots of stairs. |
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Close-up of the lighthouse facility. |
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Inside the rectangular building in the above photo. |
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The light for which the house is named. |
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View from the lighthouse platform. |
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Headed over to Chimney Rock Trail. There are a bunch of historic cattle
ranches all over Point Reyes. Some of the roads run right through them, so
you occasionally have to stop for cattle in the road. I do not really
recommend bringing a car you are very particular about to Point Reyes. Or a
car that bottoms out easily. Or a car that doesn't like to go off road if
there is oncoming traffic. Or a car you would mind driving through cow
manure. In other words, I don't recommend bringing your NSX. The rented Ford
NSEscape, on the other hand, was perfect.
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I assume this is the Chimney Rock formation for which the trail is
named. |
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Chimney Rock Trail (1.2 miles each way) is a nice little hike with views of Drakes Bay and
the Pacific Ocean. I read that it's great for spring wildflowers, but I'm on the
exact opposite side of the calendar from that! The rocky cliffs drop off steeply
to the water; there is no beach access unless you're into some pretty extreme
beach activities. |
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The trail gets going. It was considerably windy. |
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Fence view |
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Getting close to the end |
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This sign is hilarious. I wonder how many people have to fall over a
cliff before they install a sign like this. |
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Erosion in action |
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The trail continues |
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I felt like I was in the Scottish Highlands or something. |
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The trail loops around the point at the end. There's nowhere else to go! |
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View back from the point |
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Looking back over Drake's Bay on the main land mass |
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Some sort of birds hanging out on this big rock. |
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Water crashing through a rock bridge |
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The view down from the point. |
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Another view over Drake's Bay |
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Headed back to the trailhead |
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Cow In Repose |
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Next I went down to Drake's Beach. On the map above, it's where the road
(the red line) makes a little Y as it heads down to the lighthouse. I
believe that land mass off in the distance is where the Chimney Rock trail
is located. |
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Drake's Beach looking the other direction. Again it was pretty cold and
windy so not many beachgoers. |
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I drove to the northernmost part of the park. The road ends at Point
Pierce Ranch. I headed back south a little bit and walked the Kehoe Beach
Trail (1.2 miles each way), which is a a flat trail through Kehoe Marsh and
then out to Kehoe Beach. |
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I read that brush rabbits, bobcats and mountain lions are occasionally
sighted in this area. |
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I didn't see any rabbits or large cats, but I did see a deer. Frankly
I'm pretty glad I didn't see any mountain lions because I believe they can
grow up to 150 pounds which sounds pretty dangerous, and I was alone on the
trail. Someone would have found some slightly gnawed Canon camera gear near
a pile of mountain lion poop and that would have been the last anyone ever
heard from me. |
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Detail of a puffy shrub I noticed on the way back to the car. |
