Frommer's National Parks of the American West - Don Laine [329]
The Sir Francis Drake Highway closes at South Beach on weekends from January through mid-April, when buses take visitors to the lighthouse and back from 9am to 5:15 pm. Tickets ($5 adults, free for children under 17) are available at the Ken Patrick Visitor Center.
Organized Tours & Ranger Programs
Rangers lead free programs within Point Reyes National Seashore year-round. Offerings include wildlife hikes, local history lessons, and habitat-restoration demonstrations. Call the Bear Valley Visitor Center (☎ 415/464-5100) for up-to-date schedules.
Point Reyes Field Seminars (☎ 415/ 663-1200; www.ptreyes.org) offers half-day to 3-day classes year-round, ranging from yoga retreats to birding courses to writing seminars. Half-day seminars usually cost less than $50, 3-day courses about $250.
Historic & Man-Made Attractions
Kule Loklo is a re-creation of a Coast Miwok Indian village that often schedules displays of dancing, basket-making, cooking, and indigenous art. Until recently, Morgan Horse Ranch was the only working horse-breeding farm in the National Park System. Although breeding is defunct, the ranch remains a good place to see park patrol horses. Also, exhibits here offer an interpretive glimpse into the area's horse ranching past. Both are near the Bear Valley Visitor Center on Bear Valley Road and are open year-round.
If you really want to escape the crowds and enjoy some stinky man-made entertainment, head to Johnson's Drakes Bay Oyster Company, 17171 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., about 6 miles west of Inverness (☎ 415/669-1149). Located in the park, right on the edge of Drakes Estero (a large saltwater estuary on the Point Reyes Peninsula that produces about 10% of California's commercial oyster yield), Johnson's may look and smell like a dump, with its cluster of trailer homes, shacks, and oyster tanks surrounded by huge piles of oyster shells, but those tasty bivalves don't come any fresher or cheaper. The typical modus operandi is: 1) buy a couple of dozen (reserve them in advance if you can—they go quickly), 2) head for a picnic area along nearby Drakes Beach,
3) fire up the barbecue pit (don't forget the charcoal), 4) split and barbecue the little guys, 5) slather them in Johnson's special sauce, and 6) slurp 'em down. Johnson's is open Monday through Saturday 8am to 4:30pm, Sunday 10am to 4:30pm.
Day Hikes
There's a little of everything for hikers here—32,000 acres, crisscrossed by 70 miles of trails, set aside as wilderness where no motor vehicles or bicycles are allowed. The principal trailheads are Bear Valley, Palomarin, Five Brooks, and Estero. Pick up a free trail map at the visitor center.
Abbotts Lagoon Trail
3 miles RT. Easy. Access: Abbotts Lagoon Trailhead parking area on Pierce Point Rd.
If you're looking for a short, easy trail well away from the masses, this is the one. After climbing a small ridge, you continue down to Abbotts Lagoon, a popular watering hole for migratory birds.
Bear Valley Trail
8 miles RT. Easy. Access: Bear Valley Trailhead, south of visitor center parking area.
This is your best bet for a beautiful walk through the woods to the rocky coast. The well-worn trail leads through wooded hillsides until it reaches the shore at Arch Rock, where Coast Creek splashes into the sea through a "sea tunnel" (actually the arch of Arch Rock).
Coast Trail
7 miles RT. Easy to moderate. Access: Palomarin trailhead, just off Mesa Rd. at southern tip of park. Recommended by locals, this trek is one of Point Reyes's prettiest. This section of the trail skirts a cliff offering stunning views and then passes several small lakes and meadows before it reaches Alamere Falls, a freshwater stream that cascades down a 40-foot bluff onto Wildcat Beach.
Easily the longest trail at the national seashore, the Coast Trail continues for a 15-mile one-way hike along the coast that is usually done in 2 days, camping a third of the way through at Wildcat Beach. (There's another campground at Santa Maria