™

87Updated - January 2016

Where, when, and howto discover the best

photography in America

Published since 1989

Point Reyes in WinterThirty miles north of the Golden Gate, a hook-shaped peninsula extends from the California coast. This peninsula is separated from the mainland on the north by Tomales Bay, formed by the San Andreas fault line. Point Reyes is on the Pacific Plate, a part of the Earth’s floating crust that is not attached to the rest of North America. Protected from development, Point Reyes is where images of sandy beaches, ocean caves, green meadows, lakes, streams, and waterfalls can be photographed. Herds of tule elk graze open meadows on a narrow peninsula extending for miles into the Pacific. A great variety of bird life includes puffins, pelicans, and hawks. An antique lighthouse stands on the edge of dramatic cliffs. Gray whales and elephant seals can be photographed on Drakes Bay where the explorer, Sir Francis Drake, landed in 1579.Winter and summer fogs soften Point Reyes landscapes. Horizons disap-pear when whole forests are lost in the mist. Here you can create magical images when photographing limited pallets of muted colors illuminated by sunlight diffused through a fog. When the harsh contrast of direct sunlight is reduced, exposure problems are eliminated and new images are revealed.Point Reyes enjoys sunny and clear days in November, while heavy ground fog chills inland California valleys. The low angle of a winter sun casts long shadows. Details stand out in sharp relief. Trails are uncrowded in the winter, my favorite time to photograph Point Reyes.

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In winter, skies over Point Reyes National Seashore are dramatic, and Pacific storms push huge waves onto the outer beaches. The first rains of winter bring wild mushrooms to Mt. Vision. In this newsletter are some of my favorite trails to some unusual places to set up a tripod and a camera. Before driving out to the coast, check the weather forecasts. If you want to visit the lighthouse, find out when it is open to the public.

The Lay of the LandThe eastern boundary of Point Reyes Na-tional Seashore is defined by the long and narrow Tomales Bay to the north and the pavement of the two-lane Highway 1. A long, forested ridgeline lies along the eastern side of the peninsula. The highest peak (1,407 feet) is Mount Wittenberg. From the ridge, the landscape gradually slopes westward to the edge of the Pacific. Rolling green hills are dotted with a dozen dairy ranches, estab-lished after the area was settled in the mid 1800s. The northern tip of the peninsula slides into the Pacific just beyond the ocean’s narrow opening into Tomales Bay.

From the northern tip of Tomales Point, down the western side of the peninsula, wide sandy beaches face the open sea. Wind, salt spray, and the steady roar of breaking surf challenge photographers searching for new images.In early years, vessels sailing the Pacific Coast were wrecked on the rocky cliffs of Point Reyes on the westernmost tip of the peninsula. In 1870, a lighthouse was built to guide ships lost in the dense fogs that blanket this coast. It was decommissioned in 1975.Facing the south, a wide, curved beach circles Drakes Bay, protected from storms rolling

in from the Pacific. Drakes Estero, a half-dozen shallow lagoons fac-ing Drakes Bay, is a major habitat for a great variety of shore birds. Beyond the wide and sandy Liman-tour Beach, Drakes Bay opens to the sea. Down the rugged southwestern coastline, waterfalls drop from cliffs onto small remote beaches. Accessi-ble by trail, this wilderness area has hidden places visitors can reach only during the lowest tides. Approaching Point Reyes from the south, driving north on Highway 1, make a left turn onto Bear Valley Road, a couple hundred feet north of the village of Olema. This route will take you past the entrance to the

Bear Valley Visitor Center. First-time visitors should pick up a free map and purchase a trail guide and a tide table.From the north, driving south on Highway 1, you’ll pass through the town of Point Reyes Station, east of the national seashore, south of Tomales Bay and north of the Olema Val-ley. This town was a stop on the North Pa-cific Coast Railroad, built in the 1870s. Point Reyes Station has restaurants, a gas station, and most of the other services you may need. Watch for the sign at the intersection just south of town where a side road, marked Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, leads out to the peninsula.

A break in the weather 37,59.8209N 123,1.1289W

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InvernessThe small town of Inverness is located five miles north of the Bear Valley Visitor Cen-ter. Heading north, the Inverness Grocery Store and Deli is on the right. Pull into the parking lot and drive around back, behind the market. Park there and walk out to the edge of Tomales Bay. The wreck of the fish-ing boat, Point Reyes, is still there, heeled over and trapped in the sand (on the cover). You may find patterns of reflections during a high tide or, during a low tide, exposed trails leading far out beyond the hull for a differ-ent angle. This wreck in dense fogs, under a dark, stormy sky, or on bright, sunny days, is one of my favorite stops on photo trips to the Point Reyes peninsula.

Tomales BayThe most beautiful and most accessible beaches are within the boundaries of the two-thousand acre Tomales Bay State Park.

Many small horseshoe-shaped coves are protected by the dense forests along Inver-ness Ridge.Start at Shell Beach, as the tide is going out, and you can walk the wide, exposed shore-line for miles along the western edge of To-males Bay, photographing tide pools and sea caves lining small coves. The trail from Shell Beach to Heart’s Desire Beach leads through a dense rainforest of bishop pine, coastal live oak, and bay trees.

Start this walk an hour before the posted time of the low tide, and you’ll have time

to safely return without getting trapped on some remote beach. Buy a tide table at the Bear Valley Visitor Center to plan your explorations along the shores of Tomales Bay to coincide with a minus tide of -1.0 foot or lower.You can reach Shell Beach at the end of Camino del Mar. The side road leaves Sir Francis Drake Bou-levard directly across the road from the Inverness Valley Inn, less than two miles north of Inverness. The isolated, sandy cove called Shell Beach is at the end of a ten-minute walk through a rainforest of oaks and bishop pines. The trail crosses Shell Beach and continues north-

ward for several miles to Pebble Beach and then north to Heart’s Desire Beach. Heart’s Desire can be easily reached by driving into Tomales Bay State Park, one-mile north of

Inverness 38,5.793N 122,51.1071W

Shell Beach 38,6.9937N 122,52.3814W

Trail to Hearts Desire Beach 38,7.9411N 122,53.5732W

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the “Y” intersection where Pierce Point Road leaves Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. At the fork, head right to McClures Beach and To-males Bay State Park or turn left to reach the lighthouse.A fee is collected at the entrance to Tomales Bay State Park. Unlike the cold ocean beaches and dangerous undertows on the Pacific side of the peninsula, Tomales Bay is calm, shal-low, and sometimes warm.Sword ferns, salal, huckleberry, and toy-on line the trail. When winter rains start, wild mushrooms appear, pushing their way through the duff beneath the pines along the Indian Beach Trail. This environment is eas-ily photographed on foggy days or late in the afternoon when the tops of the cliffs above Tomales Bay are in the shade of the Inverness Ridge. Direct sunlight is too contrasty for photographing these woods in midday.

Marshall BeachTwo-hundred feet beyond the entrance to Tomales Bay State Park, a side road, marked “Duck Cove/Marshall Beach Road,” leaves the main road. The first half-mile is paved–the northern two miles are graded gravel. This road passes through the open, rolling land of the historic L Ranch, one of the dozen or so dairy ranches still operating in the Na-

tional Seashore area. From the parking area at the end of the road, there are open views of Tomales Bay looking toward the southeast. The marked trail to Marshall Beach passes through three gates as it crosses private ranch property. Trails marked as dotted black lines

on the official map of the national seashore are for hikers only. Trails marked as dotted red lines are for hikers and bikers.From the trail, looking north, Hog Island is visible. To the south, the narrow and shallow Tomales Bay disappears into marshes and grass-covered meadows. The last half-mile of the trail gets fairly steep as it descends through cypress groves to a sandy beach. From the trail and from the beach, there are views of the small fishing village of Marshall across the bay, a stop on the long-abandoned North Pacific Coast Railroad, built in the 1870s.

Elk HerdsA high fence crosses the peninsula north of Kehoe Beach, separating herds of tule elk from dairy cattle that graze much of the western part of the peninsula.There are at least six herds of tule elk north of the fence. Tule elk have always lived on Point Reyes. After being hunted to extinc-tion here, they were reintroduced in 1978 using animals from inland California areas. Fallow deer, a Mediterranean exotic with flat, reindeer-like antlers, have been intro-duced to Point Reyes. Some are pure white.

Tomales Point TrailNo road reaches the northern tip of the Point Reyes National Seashore. A wild and wind-blown ridge trail extends for over four-and-a-half miles, from the parking area and trailhead at the historic Pierce Point Ranch, to the north end of Tomales Point. Pierce Point Road, the only access to the northern regions of Point Reyes, ends at a small park-ing area at the McClures Beach Trailhead, a quarter-mile beyond Pierce Point Ranch.

The trail to Marshall Beach 38,9.792N 122,54.9376W

Tule elk 38,11.228N 122,57.2109W

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The trail to Tomales Point starts at the west side of the parking area, in front of the ranch. It climbs an easy grade and circles the west side of the whitewashed build-ings. There are several spots along the trail for panoramic compositions of the barns, bunkhouses, a one-room schoolhouse, and milking shed.

The trail gradually climbs for one mile along the Pacific side of the peninsula, passing small herds of tule elk north of the ranch. I photographed elk grazing along the trail, including them in compositions framing distant cliffs dropping into the sea.At the one-mile point, the trail heads east-ward for a view of Hog Island in Tomales Bay, framed in the notch of White Gulch. I photographed another herd of elk spread

out across the bottom of the gulch. The closest herds were less than a hundred feet away. I photographed five herds of elk along the trail.For the next mile-and-a-half, the trail climbs gradually up the center of the peninsula to its highest point (471 feet). A couple-hun-

dred feet west of the high point is a large pile of round boulders. In the spring, this rock pile is surrounded by wildflowers and makes an interesting foreground for panoramic photos of the distant sea cliffs. At this high point along the trail, Bodega Bay and the Sonoma Coast to the north are visible. The homes seen eastward across Tomales Bay are

on Dillon Beach, above a shallow sand bar, formed by the tidal surge at the mouth of Tomales Bay. This sand bar causes the longest left-breaking wave in Northern Cali-fornia. Surfers call

this the Shark Pit. Tomales Bay is a breeding ground of the great white shark. From the high point, you can see McClures Rock and farther south along more than ten miles of surf rolling onto one long, straight beach ending at the Point Reyes Lighthouse. Turn around here and return to the trail-head if a five-mile roundtrip hike is enough for you. Or keep going another mile farther north and downhill to the site of the Lower

Pierce Point Ranch. There, a side trail winds down a ravine to another seclud-ed beach on Tomales Bay.From the Lower Pierce Ranch site, it’s another mile-and-a-half along an unimproved trail leading through brush and dunes to the low bluffs at the northern tip of Point Reyes National Seashore. It’s a long but worthwhile hike.There are only a few cypress trees along this trail. It’s mostly open, rolling meadows. In April and May, fields of lupine, poppies, buttercups, and Indian paintbrush cover these meadows. Au-

tumn weather, all the way through November and into December, is usually perfect for hiking these trails. It can get cold and windy in midwinter, when Pacific storms blow in. Out and back is an all-day round-trip trek of nine-and-a-half miles with an elevation gain of a thousand feet.

Pierce Point Ranch 38,11.4119N 122,57.3214W

The trail to Tomales Point 38,11.618N 122,57.7448W

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McClures BeachAt the end of the road, a quarter-mile west of the Tomales Point Trailhead, is a parking area at the trailhead to McClures Beach, the northernmost ocean beach accessible by

car. It’s a ten-min-ute walk down a narrow gully from the parking area to the beach. Very low tides expose large areas of rock buried in the sand and more tidepools than other accessible ocean beaches on Point Reyes.Dramat-

ic seascape compositions can be photographed there including dark stone formations rising from tidepools reflecting the sky. A dense fog on this coast will reduce contrast and compress the range of light reflecting from shadows and highlights. Multiple expo-sures, using HDR techniques with a digital camera, can capture the tonal range between dark stones and highlights on tidepools in the fog.The largest areas of tidepools are south of the point where the trail reaches the beach. During a low tide, it is possible to walk around the rocky headland point beyond the tidepools to reach a rocky beach with a view of Elephant Rock. A tide table is strongly recommended. A safer viewpoint can be found at the western end of a half-mile trail leading from the west side of a sharp hairpin curve in the paved road at a spot located a half-mile south of the Pierce Point Ranch. The half-mile-long trail descends over three-hundred feet down a gully to the edge of the cliffs. The trunk of Elephant Rock faces the sea.

Kehoe BeachHeading south, returning from the end of the road, Kehoe Beach is located halfway be-tween McClures Beach and Abbotts Lagoon. The trail to Kehoe Beach is shorter and easier. The marsh and pond is smaller than Abbotts Lagoon. This wide and sandy beach doesn’t have the dramatic rocky formations found on McClures Beach. Great bushes of yellow and blue lupine cover the hillsides along the trail. In the winter, I like to pho-tograph beach grass on the dunes framing monster waves as they break on the beach.

Abbotts LagoonFrom the large parking area at the trailhead, out to the beach beyond Ab-botts Lagoon, the hike is just over a mile. The trail is a narrow, hard-packed dirt path winding through an open area of waist-high chapar-ral. At the edge of the sand, the trail cross-es a small wooden bridge at the narrows between two large freshwater lagoons.

38,11.2051N 122,57.8741W

Kehoe Beach on a windy afternoon 38,9.3302N 122,56.9348W

Abbotts Lagoon

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From the bridge to the ocean is another half-mile of soft sandy trail. In late November, the lagoons are crowded with birds. Bobbing on the surface were thousands of gulls sur-rounded by large masses of grebes, Caspian terns, and little black coots. On an exposed sandbar rested hundreds of white pelicans.Late in the afternoon, I like to shoot patterns of sunlight through large breakers rolling onto the beach. The water is too cold and the undertow too dangerous to swim here. It’s a perfect place for beach photography. It’s a two-and-a-half mile walk northward through the sand to Kehoe Beach where there’s a half-mile walk to the parking area at Kehoe Beach Trailhead. McClures Beach and some of the best tide-pools are another two-and-half-mile hike to the north of Kehoe Beach. You will need a tide table and some care-ful planning to get around the rocky promontory between Kehoe Beach and McClures Beach. Schedule this hike to coincide with an extra-low tide.

Mt. Vision RoadThree miles south of the Abbotts La-goon trailhead turn right at the junc-tion onto Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, the road to the lighthouse. One mile west, a paved side road marked “Mt. Vision” leaves the lighthouse road, and climbs toward the summit of the second-highest peak on Point Reyes. On a clear day, the views from the top are spectacular. On a foggy day, there are dense forests of bishop pine and sword ferns to explore and photograph. The best examples of the fern forests are two miles up the road. Soft and diffuse light through thick fogs blowing in from the sea opens shadows and makes exposures easy. Popping up through thick layers of pine needles after the first winter rains are great numbers of wild mushrooms cover-ing the forest floor. I prefer to photograph ground-level portraits of small mushroom families. This is my favorite use for my 55 mm macro lens. I can move in close and

avoid including too much out-of-focus foreground detail. The 55 mm macro lens has more depth-of-field than my 105 mm macro lens, for sharper focus on the larger mushrooms. With my camera sitting on a small bean bag, I can hand-hold a reflector to bounce some fill-light up into the gills and open shadows beneath the darker speci-mens. With the camera’s timer delay set for twenty seconds, I can move a large diffusion scrim into position over the mushrooms.

Drakes BeachAlong the road to the lighthouse, watch for the sign marking the right turn to the his-toric Marconi Trans Pacific Radio Commu-nication Station. The long, straight drive to the facility is lined with large cypress trees creating a tunnel.

Back on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, head-ing south toward the lighthouse, some high viewpoints along the road offer views of distant clusters of farmhouses, barns, and wind-blown cypress trees. Late in the day, they cast long shadows across the meadows.To the east of the lighthouse road, the la-goons of Drakes Estero are visible. Several marked trails lead down to the edge of the marshes. A large sign marks a side road that winds two miles down the bluffs to a parking area at the edge of Drakes Bay. This sandy beach is protected from wind and waves. The quiet surf rolls onto the beach.

Entry drive to historic radio station 38,5.7137N 122,56.8137W

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Drakes Beach is a great place to watch a full moon rise over a calm bay. From the park-ing area, walk westward along the sand or follow the paved path from the parking area to a raised viewpoint to find the best spot for your tripod. If you are lucky enough to arrive during a colorful sunset, you may cap-ture the moon, its long reflection across the bay, and the color of the eastern sky reflect-ing in Drakes Bay.From Drakes Beach, look south, straight across Drakes Bay, to see Chimney Rock at the eastern tip of the Point Reyes peninsu-la. The lighthouse sits on the western tip of the peninsula and the historic Point Reyes Lifeboat Station can be seen on the far side of the bay.

Chimney Rock TrailBack on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, three miles farther south, another marked side road heads east to another parking area. From here, trails lead to the lifeboat station, an elephant seal breeding ground, and the Chimney Rock Overlook.After reaching the high point along the trail, a half-mile east of the parking area, an un-marked trail veers to the south. Out on the edge of the cliffs looking west is a wonderful view of both the Pacific and Drakes Bay, separated by a narrow peninsula. The penin-sula’s ridgeline drops vertically for hundreds of feet to a rugged coastline on the Pacific

side and rolls gradually down green hillsides to Drakes Bay. From this spot, you can see the flashing lighthouse two miles west. Stay back and away from the soft and crumbling edge along the cliffs.The trail continues east to a bench above the cliffs where Chimney Rock stands. Set up a tripod here and watch for blue and hump-back whales traveling north from their breed-ing areas on the Mexican Coast to feed in the waters off Point Reyes called the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. From December through March, California gray whales pass close to the cliffs on their way north. From the trail, they can be spotted in the surf line, close to the shore. Adult whales swim on the west side of the young whales

along the beach to protect them from orcas, called “killer whales,” which follow the migration northward. Large adult whales block the underwater “sonar” locating techniques used by orcas to find young gray whales.When walking back to the trail-head, follow the fork to the right, at the bottom of the steepest sec-tion of trail, to return on a paved road past the lighthouse station and the fishing boat piers.

Elephant Seal OverlookFrom the parking area at the Chimney Rock Trailhead, it’s a five-minute walk out to the Ele-

phant Seal Overlook above a sandy cove at the well-protected western tip of Drakes Bay.Pack your longest telephoto and follow the marked trail located on the north side of the parking area. Walk to the overlook at the end of the short trail to photograph individuals and small groups of elephant seals.Elephant seals start to arrive in November. By December, the females give birth and raise their young. By March, the beach is crowded and noisy. Late in April, the herd returns to the Pacific to feed with their young pups. Elephant seals spend eighty percent of their lives alone feeding in the open sea.

Sunset on the trail to Chimney Rock 37,59.4487N 122,58.3196W

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Unlike the much larger elephant seal ref-uge at Año Nuevo Beach, a hundred miles south of Point Reyes, visitors are kept at a greater distance from the animals here at Point Reyes. Pressures of overcrowding at the larger Año Nuevo breeding grounds have driven parts of the herd farther north to Drakes Bay.

Point Reyes LighthouseBack on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, the road to the lighthouse continues past the Chimney Rock access road for one mile to a gate and a parking area. Check the Internet for Lighthouse hours.You can walk (or ride a bike) along a half-mile paved road, past the parking area, out to the locked gate at the top of the 308 stairs that descend the cliffs to the lighthouse. Even the view from the top of the stairs makes a good photograph when the gate is locked (above).Historical photographs and information on the history of the Point Reyes Lighthouse, plus a selection of books on Pacific Coast Lighthouses and some trail maps, are avail-able in the small visitor center above the lighthouse.

The rangers on duty are helpful, answering lighthouse questions and whale questions. When the sea is calm, this is one of the best places to watch migrating whales on their way from Alaska to Mexico and back.It’s an easy walk down the long stairway to the building that still houses an old

steam-powered foghorn. Just beyond is a round tower housing the eight-foot-tall fresnel lenses made of over a thousand pieces of hand-cut crystal and weighing three tons. These prisms focused the light of oil lamps into a beam that could be seen for thirty miles out to sea. The foghorn warned off passing ships when bad weather obscured the light. The light was made in Paris in 1867 and warned ships away from the rocks for more than a hundred years before a modern high-intensity electric light system was installed nearby.

Visitors are free to wander. Space is limited inside the tower in the cramped area around the mechanism below the lamp. I found some good tripod locations part way down the stairs, including the stairs and the railing. Very close to the base of the lighthouse, I shot some tight, vertical compositions.After climbing back up the long flight of stairs, I photographed some unusual pat-terns of Swiss-cheese erosion in the pink sandstone cliffs, just west of the visitor center. Back on the road to the trailhead, wind-sculpted trees, bent over by strong northerly winds, frame the view northward of surf rolling onto the eleven-mile-long outer beach facing the Pacific. (Photo on page 2).

37,59.7879N 123,1.26W

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Bear Valley TrailThe wide trail, an old ranch road, leaves the west side of the parking lot and gradu-ally climbs for 1.6 miles to Divide Meadow. Great pines and oaks surround this wide opening in the forest. The Old Pine Trail, the easiest trail leading up to the Inverness Ridge, heads north from Divide Meadow. The Old Pine Trail actually passes through a forest of Douglas fir.

From Divide Meadow, heading west on the Bear Valley Trail, it’s all downhill, a gradual descent for two-and-a-half-miles to the coast. Coast Creek follows the trail, along the last mile to the Pacific, down a heavily-wooded canyon. Tall red alders line the trail and cast long shadows on a sunny day. In winter, heavy fogs drip from the moss-covered California buckeyes. Ferns growing from the gnarly branches indicate that this is a rain forest.When you start to hear the sound of surf in the distance, you’ll see a sign mark-ing the junction of the Coast Trail. From the overlook, Drakes Bay is to the north. Depending on the weather, you may see the Farallone Islands on the horizon. There are no guard rails and it’s a long drop to the rocks below. A steep and narrow side trail leads down to a small sandy beach where Arch Rock once stood. This side trail is not recommended when large waves crash against the cliffs.

It’s an eight-and-a-half-mile hike from the Visitor Center out to the coast and back.Bicycles are permitted on the Bear Valley Trail, as far west as the junction of the Glen Trail and the Baldy Trail, three miles west of the Bear Valley Trailhead. With a bike, you’ll have to walk one mile, from the trail junc-tion to the coast and back to the junction. Pack a chain and padlock and leave your bike attached to the bike rack at the junction

while you hike down to the beach.

Limantour BeachOne mile north of the Bear Valley Visitor Center on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, a side road marked “Limantour Beach” climbs to the top of the ridge and winds west to the shoreline at Drakes Bay. After a short walk from the parking area to the beach, you have a choice of walking north or south.To the north, the beach follows Limantour Spit, a two-mile-long sand spit protecting the entrance to Drakes Estero, a huge saltwater bay and marsh where thousands of

birds nest in the wetlands that parallel the ocean beach. At dusk and dawn, huge flocks rise from their roosts in search of food. At dusk and dawn, the color of the sky creates wonderfully colored images with reflections of marsh grass and flying shore birds on the water.

Divide Meadow 38,1.1725N 122,48.0282W

Along the road to Pierce Point Ranch 38,7.1717N 122,54.9962W

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My life-long career in photography began at San Jose State University in 1957. After college, I enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, serving as a photographer and darkroom technician. In Germany, my skills and expe-rience with equipment and lab work were developed and polished. I took the opportunity to photograph the beauty of nature in the Black Forest. Returning to California in 1965, I produced industrial and military training films for Raytheon Electronics and began showing my color nature prints. From 1969 through 1981, my photography was exhibited and sold in West Coast galleries. During the early 1980’s, I taught color darkroom workshops, then expanded to include field trips. Former customers, who had purchased my framed photographs, wanted to learn photography. My Pacific Image Photography Workshops offered adventures to the Pacific Coast, the Southwest deserts, national parks, Hawaii, New England, Canada, En-gland, and the South Pacific. The workshops evolved into writing and sharing my adventures with others. Photograph America Newsletter provides information on where, when, and how to discover the best nature photography in North America.

Photograph America Newsletteris published quarterly (four issues per year)by Robert Hitchmanwith the assistance of technical associate/wife, KatherinePost Office Box 86 Novato, CA 94948-00861-415-898-9677

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All contents of this newslettercopyright © 1989-2016 Robert Hitchman

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The Southern tip of Point Reyes This area is accessed from Highway 1 near the village of Bolinas. Follow Mesa Road and head west from Bolinas, past the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, to the end of the paved road and the trailhead. South of Arch Rock is two-mile-long Wildcat Beach. At the southern end, Alamere Falls drops at least forty feet over cliffs to the beach. Alamere Creek runs year-round. These falls are impressive after a good rain. It’s a tricky descent to the base of the falls from the Coast Trail on a spur trail that may be closed by winter rains. A safer route to the beach can be found off the Coast Trail, a hundred yards south of Alamere Creek.Alamere Falls and five small, beautiful lakes can be reached from the Palomarin Trailhead at the south end of Point Reyes. It’s a half-day hike along a wide footpath (no bikes allowed) on the Coast Trail. At the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, an easy half-mile nature trail winds down into Fern Canyon, a small rain forest surrounded by moss-covered buckeyes, that is especially nice on a foggy day.Include a few days of explorations at Point Reyes National Seashore the next time you travel the Pacific Coast. Winter’s unpredict-able weather conditions can provide dramatic lighting to illuminate some spectacular Cali-fornia landscapes.

Have a great trip !

The village of Bolinas, CA 37,54.5701N 122,41.1816W