Point Reyes: Limantour Spit & Bucklin Trail

Low expectations were the order of the day as Erik and I headed out for another hike at Point Reyes National Seashore. The conditions weren't quite right for most of the more dramatic hikes there—not a lot of recent rain for Alamere Falls to be at full flow, and the low tide was not going to be particularly low, so no point in visiting the tide pool areas. So I just looked at the map and decided on a main hike that would cover some trail I haven't been on before—part of my quest to hike every last mile of official trail (whether still maintained or not) in the national park.

But before we set off on the main hike, I planned for us to do a short hike down Limantour Spit. Limantour Spit is a wide sand bar that stretches about 2 ½ miles from the shore out towards the actual point and Chimney Rock. On one side is the wide-open ocean, and on the other side is a small inlet of ocean water that divides the spit from the cliffs of the mainland, including Drakes Head. In between the cliffs are further inlets—the first (from east to west) very minor, the second forming Estero de Limantour, and the third forming Drakes Estero, large enough to have four named bays branching off of it.

There's a one-mile trail going down the center of Limantour Spit on the map, so I figured we would hike 2 miles out and back before heading off for our main hike. Only I hadn't looked at the map that closely when planning. The trail goes less than 1/2 the length of the spit, and goes along the top of a sand dune. We walked right past the start of the trail, headed down the beach, and kept going past the end of the trail and the end of the sand dune.

The initial portion of the hike was beautiful, of course, with a wide expanse of beach stretching on seemingly forever, and the waves gently crashing. But it got more interesting once we passed the end of the sand dune on our right. Then came a series of smaller sand dunes separated by open gullies through which we could see the muddy low areas on the north side of the spit exposed by the receding tide and backed by the cliffs on the other side of the inlet that separates the spit from the mainland. We walked along the edge of this wet tidal area, enjoying the views of the cliffs and the esteros.

We hiked out more than 2 miles, and since I had only planned on hiking out 1 mile, it took us longer than I had planned. I would have liked to have gone all the way to the very end of the spit, and we weren't that far from it. I know people go out there, because I've seen them from Sunset Beach, on the mainland. But we were at the point of low tide, and not having been out there before, I wanted us to get back without giving the tide a chance to rise any higher than it had been when we set out.

Before returning, I climbed up the last sand dune to check out the view, and immediately noticed a bunch of wood and cords that appeared to be part of a sailing vessel. I went over to check it out, and discovered a shelter had been built into the side of the sand dune out of various items that had been washed ashore, and a couple of lawn chairs that may have been left behind. Before it a bench and table were set up. The table was covered with a collection sea shells. No sign of the creator of this remote retreat.

We headed back along the beach, and before long met up with our footprints left on the way out. When we got back to the long sand dune, we climbed it, and followed what seemed to be a faint use trail, until it brought us to a wider path that must have been the official trail shown on the map. It appears that even at high tide this trail is well above the water line, so we could have made it to the end of the spit and still made it back with plenty of margin for error. The highlight of this portion of the hike was spotting two deer.

Back at the car, we drove back on Limantour Road to the trailhead at Muddy Hollow Road, and set out on that dirt road.

Soon there was a stream to cross, but it was pretty narrow, so I just ran up and leaped across it. Erik generally prefers to slowly step across rocks to cross a stream—rock hopping is the general term, but in Erik's case it is more like rock yoga. But not seeing suitable rocks to step across, he leaped too—and came about one boot length short of making it without splashing.

Past the junction with Bay View Trail, the trail climbed a bit, and Erik pointed out the trees we were passing by: bishop pines. They had pine cones growing straight out of the trunk of the tree, and there were no pine cones to be found on the ground. He told me that they stay on the tree and only open to release their seeds in fire.

We reached a nicely signed junction and started off on Bucklin Trail, which climbs quite a ways to reach Point Reyes Hill at 1,336 feet. Oddly, Point Reyes Hill is 54 feet higher than the peak of Mount Vision, yet only merits the label "hill."

Bucklin Trail turned out to be a real delight. It is well graded and without many ups and downs (which can add a lot of additional climbing beyond the net elevation gain). Much of it was through a young and dense forest of bishop pines, which formed a canopy over the trail. Erik kept commenting on how densely packed these trees were, and when he got home he did some research. This whole area was burned out in the Vision Fire of 1995, and the young trees grow narrow and close together, but as they get larger, 97% of them will die off, and the larger mature trees will be spaced much farther apart.

The time of year, the recent weather conditions, and the shade provided by the canopy of trees proved to be ideal conditions for fungi and banana slugs. Over the course of this hike we spotted more banana slugs than we have ever seen on a hike before. But more exciting to me was the profusion of different types of mushrooms. I've never seen anything close to this wide of a variety of mushrooms.

Deer Skeleton

Given the low-light conditions and the need to use a small aperture to get sufficient depth of field in macro shots, I had to shoot long exposures to get decent photographs, and that was just too much work and too time-consuming for me to photograph every variety of interesting mushroom, much less every interesting mushroom.

As we neared the end of 2.3-mile Bucklin Trail we came to a clearing with spectacular views to the west of a large expanse of the park and ocean. Unfortunately, we were looking into the sun and there was a mixture of fog and clouds, so it didn't look like it would make for a compelling photograph, but it was breathtaking to see in person. To the immediate east it was quite the opposite—a large, fenced-off radar installation on top of the hill used for air traffic control. We hiked alongside this until we reached Inverness Ridge Trail.

Inverness Ridge Trail pales in comparison to Bucklin Trail for hiking pleasure, but it looks like it would be a great trail for bicycles. It was wide with lots of ups and downs. At one point there was a narrow, unmarked side trail. We couldn't resist our curiosity and ran up it to see if it led someplace interesting. It kept going and had another unmarked junction, and at that point we decided to turn back and return to the mapped trail. On the map this area appears to be close to the park boundary and private land, so I'm guessing that this trail might have led there. It's not shown on the full park map or the north district hiking map.

From Inverness Ridge Trail we made our way back to Muddy Hollow Road via Drakes View Trail. As we were heading downhill, I expected wide open views of Drakes Head and Limantour Spit, so as to justify the name of the trail. But we had no such views. It resembled Bucklin Trail, only was generally steeper. As we got to the lower portion, it opened up to a more grassy area with a couple of large wooden arch bridges across streams. On this lower portion of trail I spotted four rabbits. Back on Muddy Hollow Road, Erik redeemed himself by clearing the creek with his leap.

In all this main hike added up to 7.1 miles, and we had hiked another 4+ miles out on Limantour Spit in the morning, so I was satisfied with that. I hate to drive such a long distance and do anything less than 10 miles of hiking. There was also quite a bit of climbing for Point Reyes, although not much in comparison to Sierra hikes.

The fact that in all my research of trails to hike in Point Reyes I have never read anything about Bucklin Trail gives an idea of just what a great variety of terrific hikes there are to do at Point Reyes, albeit we may have been very lucky on our timing for the mushrooms and banana slugs. For a day that had started with such low expectations, both Erik and I were thoroughly delighted with our day of hiking.

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.

Point Reyes: Arch Rock Revisited

Above Arch Rock

My friend Erik and I wanted to go hiking at Point Reyes National Seashore sometime this week. He suggested Tuesday, but the forecast for Olema suggested that was the day of the week with the most rain. I chose Thursday, when there was just a chance of showers. And I decided we would just start out on Bear Valley Trail, and take some route that would take us across Woodward Valley Trail, which I enjoyed a lot on my own last year. The tides were all wrong for any visits to the shore this week.

We ended up hiking in the rain all day, and never made it onto Woodward Valley Trail

I picked up Erik at 7:45 and we headed down a route I drove just from visual memory: I-80 to Vallejo, CA 37 to US 101 North, exit at what turned out to be San Marin Drive (which I just recognized from a building on the hillside), west to a school, then right on Novato Boulevard, north to Point Reyes-Petaluma Road, west to a stop sign at a bridge, right to CA 1 at the north end of Point Reyes Station, then south to the turn off for Point Reyes, and finally the turn off for the visitor center and the Bear Valley Trailhead. It took about 2 hours and 20 minutes, given that we were coming from the northeastern suburbs of Sacramento, and had to drive through downtown in rush hour.

We decided to hike Bear Valley Trail to Old Pine Trail, veer off there to go to Sky Trail, then take a short jaunt over to Woodward Valley Trail, take it down to Coast Trail, and then head back to Arch Rock and the end of Bear Valley Trail to take that trail all the way back to the car.

The first two legs worked out. We headed along the easy and wide Bear Valley Trail (it's a road), with a steady rain on us. A creek flows alongside most of the trail. Frequently fallen trees span the creek, and have ferns and moss growing on them. All around the trees lacking their leaves were fully covered by other green plant life. Plenty of milkmaids (small, white wildflowers) grew off the side of the trail.


Along Bear Valley Trail

In what seemed like very little time, we reached Divide Meadow, where there are pit toilets, and the junction with Old Pine Trail. On that narrow trail, we started climbing through the forest. There was at least one clearing along the trail, and a couple of points where we were on the edge of a hillside, and could look down on banks of fog. I stopped to take a photograph of some witch's butter, with my camera protected by a plastic freezer bag. We were keeping our cameras underneath our jackets while we hiked.


Witch's Butter

Shortly after that photo stop, the rain let up. It was still drizzling a bit, and the saturated trees were dripping, but it was drier overall. After reaching the top of our climb, we made a short descent to Sky Trail.


Erik Arriving at Sky Trail

There were plenty of signs there, with arrows, trail names, and exact distances. I thought I knew where I was going well enough--just a short jog towards the coast to Woodward Valley Trail, so I didn't check the signs. Erik did, and was confused, because the sign indicated that Woodward Valley Trail was the opposite direction. But he trusted me, and followed along.


Along Sky Trail

I could tell we were going too far, and getting too close to the coast, and not heading over in the direction that I remembered Woodward Valley Trail as being. Erik then mentioned the sign, and I checked my map, and indeed we were going the wrong direction. But we kept going, since we had gone so far already, and just headed down to Coast Trail from there. There were great views, that just don't translate into photographs, of the shore and Point Reyes in the distance, coming down the last portion of Sky Trail.

Just before reaching Coast Trail, we took stock of the situation. We could head north on the Coast Trail to Woodward Valley Trail, and head back on it. This would make it a very long hike, with quite a bit more climbing. Or we could just head south to Arch Rock and head back to the car on the easy Bear Valley Trail. The voice of reason told me that we should go the easier way and take our time taking pictures, rather than try to make up for my blunder.


Ice Plant Above Arch Rock

And that's what we did. Along the way, we saw a variety of wildflowers--ice plant, monkey flower, Douglas iris, and others. Down at Arch Rock, we took the unofficial trail down to the creek--an unofficial trail that has crumbled quite a bit since we last hiked it. Unlike last time, the creek was too swollen from rain for us to make a comfortable crossing.


Arch Rock


Erik Thinking About Crossing

Instead, we headed back farther south along the coast trail, crossing the creek the easy way, on a bridge, and then worked our way over to the cliff across the creek from Arch Rock on the south. There we had nice views of the arch that gives the outcropping its name. It looks like people climb down from there, with the only difficulty being the chance of the cliff crumbling beneath you. We decided there wasn't enough reward for the risk--we had already been down there last year, and the tide was too high to explore the beach at all. Honestly, it was the rational decision--it's not because we're wusses.

From there we headed back on easy and wide Bear Valley Trail. As we got close to Divide Meadow, the rain picked up again. After that, we encountered an interesting bird. I get highly frustrated trying to photograph birds, as they don't let me get anywhere close. To compound the difficulties, it was dark, and I didn't have a good telephoto lens. But the bird let us get surprisingly close. In fact, I'm sure we could have gotten closer. But when we got to a certain point, we were concerned that the bird must be injured, or else it would have taken off. We chose not to stress it further, and left it alone.


Poor Birdy

From there it was an uneventful trip back to the car, a quick stop at the Cheese Factory on the way back, and a mercifully easy trip back to Sacramento, considering how close to rush hour it was.

Point Reyes: Sculptured Beach

First off, let's address the name. I think it should be Sculpted Beach or Sculpture Beach, but it's not. It's Sculptured Beach.

I chose this destination as it is supposed to be one of the better beaches in Point Reyes National Seashore for tidal pools. Most of my hiking books have very little on Point Reyes National Seashore. In fact, Hiking in Northern California by Ron Adkinson has lots of hikes in Southern California, but none in Point Reyes National Seashore. So I just look at the trail map and plan my own route. I wanted to do as much of a loop as possible, to see more territory. As always when planning to hike at Point Reyes, I checked the tides to time things right at saltwatertides.com.

My friend Erik joined me on this hike, and we started at the Laguna trail head, just past the hostel and education center, off of Limantour Road. There was nothing too dramatic about this first portion of trail, but I did see some sort of animal up ahead that I thought might be a dog accompanying another hiker. But it was a wild animal, as we never saw any people on the path. I was ahead of Erik, and unfortunately he didn't see it. I think he would have known what it was, but I'm still new to hiking.

This trail joins up with a fire road, which is never too exciting to hike on. Then it goes down to Coast Camp, where there are pit toilets if you need them, and even if you don't. They're just there.

We then followed the Coastal Trail to the short spur for Sculptured Beach. I recall Erik taking note of all the burnt trees near the junction with the Woodward Valley Trail, which I would hike a little later. That's a result of the 1995 Vision Fire. I also remember some women hiking the opposite direction from us, one of whom told us there was a Douglas iris around the corner. Being that it was the middle of January, that was news. When I was back to the park on April 1, there were hundreds of Douglas irises on my short hike.



At the end of the trail to Sculptured Beach, there is a stairway down to the beach itself. The first thing we noticed were some sanderlings, scurrying into the water, and then scurrying right back out. I recorded a video with my camera of them in action. It was the first time I had used that function on my camera, so I made it really short, as I was worried about how much memory it would eat up. But I worried for nothing, and now wish I had shot a longer video.










Sanderlings from tspauld on Vimeo

Then the fun of exploring the tidal pools began. Erik is from Minnesota, and I'm from Montana, so tidal pools are certainly an exotic delight for us.





There was an interesting area to the south, with some nice natural arch formations. But to get down there, we would have to climb down a rock formation, and I wasn't sure it would be possible to get back up. But Erik was all in favor of it. I let him go down first.



It seemed there were lots of round globs of sand stuck all over the place, until I looked more closely at them, and realized they were living creatures. Now I know that they are just anemones closed up when the water level drops low enough to expose them to air. But neither Erik or I had noticed them at first.



We were stopped by another rock formation with an opening in it. Erik wanted to crawl through it, but I pointed out that lining it were mussels everywhere. I'm sure our weight would have crushed many of the shells, and we didn't want to do that. So we headed back instead.



Before making the effort to try and get up at the same point we had come down to this stretch of beach, we carefully searched the rock formation for an easier point. We found one that might have been difficult to come down, but was really easy to go up. I quickly climbed right up, and Erik followed me.



Rather than take the Sculptured Beach spur back to the Coastal Trail, we headed north up the beach to the access point to the beach from Coast Camp. From Coast Camp, we took Coast Trail north. At that point, Erik spotted deer, some of which appeared to be white. We were wondering if there were albino deer. I looked it up when I got home, and they are nonnative fallow deer that were introduced to the area. We've both seen them many times since, but it was an odd discovery.

The Coast Trail meets up with the road by the hostel and education center, passing through a nice birch forest where there were plenty of black-tailed deer. Unfortunately, it was so foggy and overcast that point that it was too dark to get a good hand-held shot with full zoom. The trail ends at the road near the hostel and education center, and we took a short jaunt on the road back to the parking lot.

We stopped in Vacaville on the way back to gas up, and I noticed the vintage neon sign for Pietro's Pizza was lit, so I had to get a shot of that. Unfortunately, my camera couldn't focus on it (which I don't understand, as I shoot neon all the time), so I borrowed Erik's camera to get a shot:



Hike Report

Date: 16 January 2007
Approximate distance: 8 miles
Trail head: Laguna
Map: South District Trail Map