Park Unit 59: Point Reyes National Seashore

7/22/15. On day 3 of our Northern California Road Trip we visited Point Reyes National Seashore. In order to get to the park, we drove through the Samuel P. Taylor State Park and a bit of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This area had very tall conifer trees and reminded us of the John Muir Woods.

We finally arrived at the visitors center and got a map to choose our approach to visiting this large park. We took the road to the lighthouse and detoured up a road to one of the peaks. It got very very foggy and cool and the wind blew the clouds around us. There were some good views of the expanse of the park, which is a very interesting geological formation. Here's how the National Park Service describes it:

"Geologically, Point Reyes National Seashore is a park on the move. The eastern border of the park parallels the San Andreas Fault, which is the current tectonic plate boundary separating the Pacific Plate from the North American Plate. If you draw a line through the middle of Tomales Bay in the north through the Bolinas Lagoon on the south, this is the path of the San Andreas Fault Zone. Faults come in three types: divergent, convergent, and transform. The San Andreas Fault is an example of the third--a transform fault--where plates pass one another like cars on a two way street."

As we drove to the lighthouse at the end of the southern point, we were surprised at how much the rocky coast and barren landscape reminded us of the Channel Islands to the south.

There were ranches with cattle and lots of brown grasses.Some small bushes and flowering plants clung to the rock. It seems so odd to have a place so dry right along the coast.


The actual coastline is home to harbor seals in the rocky coves. 


The western edge was a magnificent beach with strong breakers all along the many miles. On top of the lighthouse point, the wind was so strong it was hard to stand against it. The late-day sun made gorgeous sparkling white patterns on the ocean, which stretched as far as one could see.

Point Reyes Peninsula felt isolated and exotic. This park was so much more interesting than we expected. There is a tremendous variety of different geology, plant, and animal life. The area of the park is very large - it took us almost an hour just to get to the lighthouse point. All in all, it is very unusual and it really feels like the wilderness.