John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints

Point Reyes National Seashore, near San Francisco, California

Location

Point Reyes National Seashore is the large triangular shaped peninsula which juts out into the Pacific Ocean a short distance north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The only road between the mainland and the peninsula heads west from the small town of Point Reyes Station which lies on California State Highway 1. There are also fairly clearly marked good quality roads inland from Point Reyes Station to Petaluma and several other towns on US101.

Size

111 square miles. For comparison, the size of the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England is 147 square miles.

What to See and Do

Point Reyes is quite hilly, not a flat estuary as anyone unfamiliar with the area might expect purely by looking at a map. Perhaps this is not so much of a surprise given how hilly the coast is here.

From the town of Point Reyes Station most visitors will drive north to the small town of Inverness, then west to the point itself - the westernmost tip of the peninsular. There is also a road which goes north to Tomales Baby State Park which we didn't explore - I think this might be an unpaved road.

At the westernmost tip, Point Reyes itself, there is a lighthouse. From the parking area there is a walk of perhaps a quarter of a mile along a fairly flat paved road (which is closed to cars), then the lighthouse is accessed by climbing down a large number of steps on the side of a hill which are equivalent to the height of a twenty or thirty-storey building (I forget the exact figure). There is a warning about how strenuous the ascent back up the steps will be. The lighthouse and the steps to it are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays but even then it can be seen from top of the steps. The views over the Pacific coast here are most impressive. On the walk between the parking area and the top of the steps there is a good view of a beach far below to your right.

There are a number of spur roads which lead off the main road to several beaches. We visited Drake's Beach, named after Sir Francis Drake who was an early explorer of this area. There is a visitor centre here but it is only open at weekends.

There is no entrance charge for visiting Point Reyes National Seashore.

The entire area makes for an extremely pleasant rural contrast to the urban unpleasantness of the nearby city of San Francisco.

Trivia

Near the top of the steps is a hemispherical device with pipes leading from it, some of which have valves. I think this was part of a system for collecting rainwater for use by the lighthouse keepers. However, players of the graphical adventure games of Myst and Riven will recognise this structure, the lighthouse and the layout of the land here, with the individual hills almost forming separate islands with narrow paths between them high above the ocean.

Some Ideas for Places to Stay

In the Area

California

National Monuments

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Most recently modified 28-Nov-02