Point Reyes: Woodward Valley & Sculptured Beach

I moved to Northern California in 1996, but didn't visit Point Reyes National Seashore until June of 2006. I tried to make up for that at the start of 2007, by making 10 visits to this diverse and scenic national park from January through April. But this year, high gas prices and increasing concern about putting too many miles on my aging car have forced me to curb my adventures at Point Reyes, and go only when my friend Erik can accompany me, to split the fuel costs.

Not being able visit one of my two favorite places on Earth (the other being the Desolation Wilderness in the Sierra Nevada) as often as I would like has led me to feel much greater anticipation before the few trips I am able to make, and I was particularly excited about the prospects of this hike. It's rare that I can find a day that both Erik and I have off from work, that has a low tide at the right time for us to visit the beach, and that the forecast doesn't call for overcast skies. But it all worked out this time.

Leaving on a Sunday morning, instead of Friday like last time, we didn't have to deal with slow traffic, and were able to speed to Sky Trailhead in exactly two hours--45 minutes less than it took us to get to Palomarin Trailhead on our most recent hike to Alamere Falls. It was crisp when we set out on the trail, but the skies were blue, promising warm sunshine by afternoon.

Last year when we visited Sculptured Beach, we did a short and easy loop. This year I also planned on a loop that covered some of the same territory, but overall would be longer and involve more climbing, which I consider an advantage. Two additional advantages are that this route would take us along the Woodward Valley Trail, which I enjoyed tremendously last year on a solo hike, and that it would take me across stretches of trail I had yet to hike--furthering my quest to hike every mile of official trail in the park.

We headed up Sky Trail, which near the trailhead off of Limantour Road, is wide enough to drive on. Soon we passed a sign indicating that we were entering the Philip Burton Wilderness. We must have just been crossing a small section of it, because we didn't have to climb far (1.3 miles according to the trail map) before reaching Sky Camp--a fully developed, hike-in campground with a pit toilet, drinking water supply, picnic tables, barbecues, and even a large water trough for horses.

Sky Trail travels all the way from Limantour Road to the Coast Trail, just above the shore--a total of 6.4 miles. But there are numerous intersections with other trails, making a great variety of loop hikes possible. After this trip, I have tread upon all of it but a .3 mile portion between the junction with Woodward Valley Trail and the junction with Old Pine Trail. When we reached the former junction, I jokingly suggested to Erik that I should quickly hike that .3 mile portion and then double back, just to check it off my list. As it turns out, I might as well have done that, as we had more than enough time.

If I've sped through the description of this first 3.3 miles of the journey, it's because that's what we did hiking. We had the time to stop and take photographs, unlike most times we have tried to hit a beach just before low tide. But, while it was beautiful, nothing in particular jumped out at us. In the woods, there were few wildflowers, and certainly not any kind we hadn't photographed previously. We didn't see any deer, and didn't lay eyes on any later that day either, which is unusual. So we just kept plowing ahead.

I particularly enjoy Woodward Valley Trail, although I could not explain the name to Erik, since it travels along a ridge before descending to Coast Trail, and not through a valley. It passes through some aromatic vegetation, and through dead trees covered with pale green moss, which I find strangely beautiful, while giving splendid views of Limantour Beach, Drakes Head, and Chimney Rock as it approaches Coast Trail. The dead trees are a remnant of the Vision Fire that scorched the area in October of 1995.



As soon as we hit the Coast Trail, we ran into other hikers. After checking the map, we started south to the spur trail for Sculptured Beach. Along the Coast Trail grew many wildflowers, including California poppies and Douglas irises. At the spur we made the short trip to the stairs down to Sculptured Beach. We were much too early for low tide, but headed off to our favorite area.



At low tide, one can easily walk along the sand from Sculptured Beach for a few miles onto Limantour spit, past crowded Limantour Beach (crowded because you can drive to it, rather than hike to it). But going south from Sculptured Beach is more difficult, because of rocky outcroppings that jut into the sea. The first one, right near where the trail reaches Sculptured Beach, is easy to clamber up. Getting down to the beach on the other side of it, and getting back up on the return, are a little more difficult. Despite having managed it on last year's hike, we still had to search around to find a manageable point to get down.



From there I told Erik that I would head down to the south end of the beach, by which I meant to the barrier that had stopped us from going any farther south last year, to eat lunch and wait for the tide to go out. He soon joined me.



This barrier is a large outcropping with a hole in it, though which one could easily scramble over to the next section of beach. But in doing so, one would have to climb across dozens of California mussels, and we don't like to disturb the marine life. Erik was really anxious to get to that next section of beach, however, so after lunch he tried to find a way to climb over without disturbing the mussels.


Looking South


Looking North

By the time I joined him, he was already up on a spot that I could not determine how he could contort himself to reach. But that was the end of the road for him--he couldn't find the next spot to step forward, and decided to come back. He bumped his camera, and the lens cap fell off into a pool of water, but he said he thought he could retrieve it. I vacated the area below him and made my way back to the beach. When Erik finally joined me, he reported that he had slipped, and fallen into the pool, which was quite a bit more deep than he had imagined--his leg went in above the knee. He was unable to retrieve the errant lens cap.



There was still plenty of time before low tide, but we started exploring the tide pools anyhow. There were abundant anemones, but we weren't finding any star fish. I remembered numerous star fish in this particular section when we were there last year, and Erik recalled the same abundance. This time we could only find three, and one was inaccessible. But we still had fun exploring the caves along the coast and the holes carved in large rock outcroppings, and carefully hopping along the rocks in the ocean, which were covered with strange plants and tiny anemones.





As it started getting close to low tide, I was ready to abandon this area, and try my luck farther north, so I climbed back up that first barrier. It was a little tricky for me, so I put my camera up top, so that if I fell and hurt myself, at least nothing important would be damaged. Then I pointed out to Erik where I thought it was easiest to get up, and he made it right up without any problem.



In all the time we spent on the south side of that barrier, we never saw anyone. But on the north side of it, there were now several people, exploring the tide pools, or just walking barefoot on the sand. We started working our way along the rocks in the ocean looking for tidal pool life, while gradually making our way towards Coast Camp. We encountered more success here--quite a few sea stars, as well as massive collections of California mussels, and a few goose barnacles. Erik found a sea star upside down and a ways up the beach, but apparently still alive, so he dropped it in a tide pool occupied by two other sea stars.



His boot that had been filled with water was filled again, as a wave came in while he was taking a photograph. I too got a foot soaked, as I finally slipped on one of those rocks and my left boot landed in about 16 inches of water. I took off my boot and wrung out my sock, only to get soaked again when I was kneeling for a shot and a wave came in.



When we reached the end of the rocky area--now some time past low tide--we just turned to march straight up the beach to Coast Camp. This proved difficult though, as the wind was whipping and occasionally gusts were hurling sand into our faces. We alternated between walking forwards and backwards.



From Coast Camp we took Fire Lane Trail, and encountered masses of vivid wildflowers along the way, including tiny pink ones that were growing right on, and by the edge of, the trail. At the next junction, we took Laguna Trail. It took us to just short of where we had parked for last year's hike to Sculptured Beach, then veered off to the right past an environmental education center.





This meadow area was the only part that seemed remotely laguna like. At the end of it, the trail started climbing. Except for one brief downhill stretch (on which I just missed the opportunity to photograph a turkey vulture up close and in flight as it swept up in a clearing in the trees near me), the climb was persistent until the junction with Bay View Trail. This little portion of Bay View Trail just took us right alongside Limantour Road and back to the parking area for Sky Trail and my car.



All told it was a hike of a little over 10 miles through forest and meadows, along the beach and amongst the tide pools, all in bright sunshine under blue skies. Everything worked out so well, that I wasn't even bothered when I got home to find that I didn't any very good photos from the trip. It just gives me another reason to hike to Sculptured Beach again next year--as though I needed one.

Point Reyes: Alamere Falls Revisited

Alamere Falls ranks as one of the great wonders of Northern California--an impressive waterfall that lands on the beach along a rugged scenic coastline, more than 4 miles away from the nearest road or parking lot. It is sights like this that make me so thankful I took up hiking two years ago.

But it's not all that easy to get to, both in terms of driving and hiking. Perhaps there is a faster route there, but it takes me longer to get to the Palomarin trailhead from Sacramento than any other in Point Reyes National Seashore: 2 hours and 45 minutes this time. And then it's a matter of making a long hike planned to reach the falls at low tide, or a shorter hike on a trail the park service signs as dangerous and unmaintained--if one wants to get to the beach below the falls that is.

My friend Erik and I hiked there last year, and wanted to go again this year, but it's a hike that takes patience and planning if you want to be safe and get the best conditions. We waited until there was a weekday (fewer people visiting the falls) with a good chance for some blue in the sky (no forecast is reliable for Point Reyes though) coming after recent enough rains that the falls would be going at close to full force, and then it had to be a day with the low tide at the right time.

Friday, February 29th, was that day. After making the long drive to the Palomarin Trailhead on the south tip of the park (the last bit of the drive is on dirt road), we set out on the trail, with several other people who were setting off about the same time. One of them asked me if this was the trail with the water that poured onto the beach. I don't think he had planned as thoroughly as I had.

My plan was to do as we had done last year--hike all the way to Wildcat Camp (5.3 miles), descend to the beach there just before low tide, walk down the beach to the falls (about a mile), and then return by climbing the crumbling cliff up to the aforementioned unmaintained Alamere Falls Trail. But I also wanted to be sure that our timing with the tides would allow us to return via Wildcat Camp, in case the conditions of the cliff had deteriorated and we could not make the climb up. We both feel more comfortable climbing that cliff, when we can see where the footing is, rather than descending it.

We hiked as quickly as possible, which we needed to do to hit Alamere Falls at low tide. There was no stopping for wildflowers or mushrooms, but we did stop for this critter:



From Palomarin trailhead we followed the same route along Coast Trail that we took last year up to the junction with Ocean Lake Loop (you can read a description in my blog entry on last year's hike). Last year we continued on Coast Trail to Wildcat Camp, but this time we took Ocean Lake Loop, as I'm trying to hike every single mile of trail in the park. The signs indicated this route was only .1 mile longer, while my trail map indicates it is the same distance.

This led us through a marshy area along the coast--oddly, Ocean Lake Loop is closer to the coast than Coast Trail--until we started climbing. At the start of this climb I kept hearing frogs croaking, but I never could find one. At the top of the climb there is a bench, which made me stop to check out the view. From up there I could see Alamere Falls in the distance and a long stretch of beach. That's reason enough to take Ocean Lake Loop rather than Coast Trail for that section of the hike.

We were almost to Wildcat Camp, yet high above the beach, so it was a steep descent from there. I didn't see any people or tents or anything at Wildcat Camp. A deer jumped out of the bushes just ahead of me on the trail as I approached the camp.

From here we descended to the beach and crossed a stream running into the ocean. Along the beach we got to see all that the last high tide had washed in. It's depressing to see all the garbage littering this gorgeous area. Lots of bottle caps, a cell phone, a very large plastic container of some kind--all sorts of junk. I packed the cell phone out with me, but left the rest--which I often feel guilty about on my hikes.



At one point we saw tracks coming down from the cliff, and began speculating on whether somebody had found a shortcut that might be easier than the usual one. But as we got close, we saw they were deer tracks. Farther along we saw strange bits of white matter in the tracks. Closer inspection revealed this to be lots of little bits of styrofoam. I was going to try and find where the deer went back up the cliff, but as we got close to Alamere Falls, I forgot about that, and started taking pictures. During one of the shots, a wave rolled in and washed over the top of my right boot, filling it with water.





The forecast had been for a sunny day. It had been foggy on much of the drive over. There was lots of blue sky at the start of the hike, but when we reached Alamere Falls, it was 100% overcast, which was disappointing. But still we set out taking all kinds of pictures. Just as I was ready to wind it up, I noticed a couple of streaks of blue in the sky, and we decided to hang around to see what developed. So I took off my right boot and wrung out my sock. We never did get a lot of blue sky, but we got a little more, and set about re-shooting all the same shots we had just taken. During one of these, as I was standing on rocks a little offshore, a wave came in and washed over the top of my right boot again, undoing my attempt to dry out.





I was ready to move on before Erik, so I went ahead and climbed the cliff and started taking more photos. Alamere Falls is really a series of waterfalls. The largest is the one that drops onto the beach, but there are two smaller ones viewable from a large, mostly flat area halfway up to Alamere Falls Trail. Plus there are nice views of the main falls from above here, although unfortunately the view is into the sun in the afternoon. It was a nice place to eat my sandwich.

After I shot Erik from above and he shot me from below, Erik climbed up. Then a couple arrived from Alamere Falls Trail. The man asked if there was a way down to the beach, so I showed him where we had climbed up. He started down, but the woman didn't like the idea, and eventually prevailed, so they just hung out at that level, as many people do, and I did on my second visit to Alamere Falls (coming from the more distant Five Brooks Trailhead).

I jumped back and forth over the stream a couple of times trying to find new takes on these subjects. Then I climbed up the slope on the south edge of the stream and found my way over to the edge of the falls from there, but wasn't quite able to get far enough out to get a good shot. Erik followed me over, and while he was shooting, I headed up to Alamere Falls Trail--this second climb is safer and easier than the first one. I met a couple up top who thanked me for showing them the way down, and asked if they could get all the way down to the beach, so I pointed out the way and described it to them, and also pointed out the best spot to view the main falls from above.

We were not going to be able to beat rush hour traffic home, especially on a Friday, so after we hiked the short distance back to the Coast Trail we decided to take our time on the way back, and take a side trip to Palomarin Beach, a spur off of the Coast Trail near the Palomarin Trailhead. There were plenty more opportunities for photos on the way back of wildflowers, and occasionally we would stop and get a quick shot, but neither of us was really into it, as we have been on other hikes. I'll wait a few weeks and return to Chimney Rock for wildflower shots.

The junction with the spur to Palomarin Beach is in an enchanting grove of eucalyptus trees. We started off from there and hiked down .6 miles to the beach. Although low tide was a couple of hours past, we were still able to find tidal pools with anemones and some shellfish (I didn't see any sea stars, though). Unfortunately, the water was a bit murky. Erik found the remains of a jellyfish.

Finally, we made our last climb of the day back up to Coast Trail, and the quick jaunt back to the car, winding up what I would estimate to be an 11.7 mile hike. From there we drove up to Point Reyes Station, to go over to Novato and CA 37 to take us back to I-80 while avoiding as much traffic as possible. But on 37 we hit the heavy traffic, which we were stuck in during a beautiful sunset. It continued slow through Fairfield, but of course it's worth it.