Muir Woods National Monument & Point Reyes National Seashore

May 2, 2017

I took my parents to Muir Woods and Point Reyes on Tuesday.  Those are two of my favorite weekend destinations.  They're even better to visit mid-week given the large weekend crowds.

California Giant Salamander -- Muir Woods National Monument, CA

We saw a good amount of wildlife on this day trip.  The first animal was a surprise.  It was a California giant salamander resting in the creek just above the first bridge in Muir Woods.  It was a huge salamander.  I'd guess it was at least five inches long, maybe more.  I say it was a surprise because the last thing I expect to see in Muir Woods is wildlife.  Even birds are a rare sight in the woods, although the occasional song can be heard from high up in the trees.  I've seen a couple of squirrels near the visitor's center and that's about it.  So, seeing this salamander was pretty cool.

Muir Woods National Monument, CA

Muir Woods National Monument, CA

Tuesday was a bright, sunny day.  Too much sun is a bit of a problem when taking photos in Muir Woods.  It's normally a rainy day destination for me because I don't have to fight the high contrast of light and dark under the redwood canopy when the sky is covered with clouds.  I enjoyed the challenge on this trip, though, and although the hots have their flaws I think I did better than I could have a couple of years ago.

Muir Woods National Monument, CA

Muir Woods National Monument, CA

After Muir Woods we had lunch at Pelican Inn.  I'd hoped to drive up Highway 1 to Point Reyes but the road is washed out in both directions around the Inn.  So, we drove back out to 101 and then over to the Point.

Cattle & Tule Elk -- Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

My parents had never seen elephant seals, so we headed out to Chimney Rock to see the seals.  Along the way we saw the Southern herd of tule elk hanging out with cattle.  They're often visible near the turn off to Drake's Beach, but this is the best look I've ever gotten of this group of elk.

White-crowned Sparrow -- Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

There were a lot of elephant seals on the beach.  They were all pups.  The adults have left for the season, leaving the pups behind for a few months until they are ready to head off into the ocean on their own.  These pups were pretty big, though.  At first I wasn't convinced that there weren't some adults hanging behind, but the ranger at the visitor center said that there only pups on the beach and although they were large, they looked more like sea lions than elephant seals so I slowly became convinced.

Elephant Seal -- Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

Elephant Seal -- Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

Elephant Seal -- Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

Elephant Seal -- Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

Elephant Seal -- Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

Muir Woods National Monument & Point Reyes National Seashore

February 9, 2014

We're in the midst of a major drought here in California.  You wouldn't know it from these pictures, though.  We've had a bit of rain here over the last week.  In Alameda we got an inch or so over the weekend.  I heard on the radio while I was driving around Marin on Sunday that there were places there that got up to seven inches over the same time frame.  I believe it.

Muir Woods National Monument, CA

I started Sunday's activities at Muir Woods National Monument.  The rain was coming down pretty hard.  Redwood Creek was running high and swift.  A ranger told me that the creek had risen four feet overnight.  While I was there the creek breached its bank near the visitor center turning the wooden pathway into a bridge of sorts.

Muir Woods National Monument, CA

I love Muir Woods in the rain.  The place is small and usually very crowded on the weekends.  The rain drives a lot of people away, which is nice because this is a place that's best experienced when the only hustle and bustle is coming from the water in the creek and the wind in the trees.  There are no screaming kids in the rain, no loud tourists yelling between the trees.

Muir Woods National Monument, CA

I left my new camera in the car while walking through Muir Woods.  I took my old camera, and it got so wet it stopped working toward the end in spite of my best efforts to keep it dry.  It seems to work OK now, no permanent damage apparently.

Bolinas Lagoon, CA

After a good drenching at Muir Woods, I drove up Highway One to Point Reyes.  The road was in rough shape.  There were a lot of large rocks in the road that had been washed down from the roadside cliffs and a few mud flows blocked one lane of traffic.  The road was flooded here and there, including a section near Bolinas Lagoon where it was almost a foot deep in the shallowest section.  That was fun.

Drake's Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

I hiked up Drake's Beach where I encountered a solitary elephant seal hauled out on the beach.  I'm always concerned about bothering the seals I encounter on the beach, and I have to wrestle with wanting to get closer to the animals than is allowed.  I have to remind myself that these animals need their space just like I do.  It's tough, though.

Elephant Seal -- Drake's Beach, Drake's Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

As usual, there were plenty of deer and cattle to be seen.  It wouldn't be a trip to Point Reyes without seeing deer and cows.  Red-tailed hawks, too, those birds seem to thrive on the Point.

Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

Point Reyes National Seashore, CA

Point Lobos State Nature Reserve

October 13, 2013

It's October.  The elk are in rut and I haven't had a chance to go out to the tule elk reserve on Point Reyes yet.  This would have been a great weekend for it.  If it wasn't for that damned government shutdown, that is.  I imagine the annual migrations are in swing at the wildlife reserves in the central valley as well.  Those are closed as well.  Yosemite?  Closed.  Muir Woods?  Closed.  Pinnacles?  Closed.

Sigh.

What's a weekend adventurer to do?

Golden Eagle -- Carmel Valley, CA

I decided to go for an old standby.  Point Lobos.  Like Pinnacles National Park, it's close by.  I tend to go there when I haven't worked out a destination for the weekend.  It's one of the best places I know of for seeing wildlife.  I've always wanted to hike the entire reserve.  It's not large, I think the loop is less than six miles long.  I never seem to give myself enough time, though.  I decided I'd make it around this time.

Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

I made it to Point Lobos at 12:30.  The park would close at 7:00, a half hour after sunset.  That would give me plenty of time to get around the big loop.  I parked outside the reserve (saving the ten dollar entrance fee) and headed out on the South Plateau Trail.  It's a pleasant 0.7 mile hike through a moss covered forest that ends at Gibson Beach, the Southernmost end of the reserve.

Harbor Seals -- Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

Bird Island is a very short hike from Gibson Beach.  I've been there when there are thousands of birds on the island.  Cormorants.  Pelicans.  Seagulls.  I even saw a Night Heron the last time I was there.  On this trip, though, there were maybe a hundred birds in total.  I realized that this was the first time I'd been to Bird Island in the middle of the day.  It's always been my last stop, always at dusk.  I wonder if the birds are more plentiful at night or have they moved on for the winter?

China Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

I've also never seen so many people in the reserve as the crowd I encountered at Bird Island.  I call it a crowd, that's probably an exaggeration.  I spent about a half hour there and I probably saw about three dozen people in that time, maybe two.  Considering I normally encounter a half dozen people there on a normal visit, it seemed crowded.  The rangers weren't allowing any cars in when I entered because all of the lots were full, and I guess it makes sense it would be busy since all of the federal park facilities are closed.

Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

The tide was out, which made poking around in the tide pools and scrambling around on the rocks pretty easy.  I saw a bunch of small anemones and hermit crabs.  I also found a couple of pools with a few striped shore crabs inside.  They were eating something off of the rocks, but whatever it was, I couldn't see it.

The surf was small, so I scrambled all the way out to the edge of the rocks.  Keep in mind, my arthritic forty-six year old version of scrambling is probably different from a teenager's.  I've been soaked by waves out there before, and I imagine it would be a dangerous place with a high, rough surf.  There was nothing to worry about on this day, though.  The swells were gentle and mild.

Weston Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

There were a lot of harbor seals out on the rocks near Hidden Beach and later at Sand Hill Cove.  Sometimes I think these seals have got life pretty much figured out.  Lie around on the rocks all day.  Hop into the water and eat some fish whenever you get hungry.  I was reminded that a seal's life can be a little tough, though.  One poor seal had got some wire or something caught on its neck.  Another had a nasty looking cut on its belly.  A seal's life isn't all nap time and snacks, I guess.

Harbor Seals -- Sand Hill Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

There was an injured elephant seal on the beach at Sea Lion Cove.  The trail down was closed off and a ranger was positioned up top to keep people from going down.  He said people had been throwing rocks at the seal earlier in the day so they had to close it off.  I can not fathom the ugliness in a person's heart that it would take to do something like that.  Hearing that reminded me of the stories of people shooting buffalo through the windows of trains as they passed through the open prairies in the early years of the transcontinental railroad.  The inadvertent harm we do to this land and its inhabitants is bad enough, the seal with the wire caught 'round its neck being a fine example, we surely can't afford to continue this sort of outright maliciousness.I'm grateful for places like Point Lobos and frankly baffled by anyone that could come here and not treat the land and the animals with the respect they deserve.

Sea Lion Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

I'm not done with this soapbox yet.  Eighty years is a good, long life.  Two of my grandparents lived into their nineties and one seems determined to crack the century mark.  I hope that doesn't mean my journey will be that long.  Eighty years seem like the right amount of time to be alive on this Earth.  It's a small window in time.  Through this window we see the world as it has never been before and will never be again.  We can't see dinosaurs or woolly mammoths through this window.  We can't see grizzly bears in California.  We can't see what's ahead, either.  What we can do is treasure the view we have for the time we have, and we can not shoot the buffalo as we pass by.  These are the things I think about as I go on these little adventures by myself.

Headland Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

There are only two remaining natural stands of Monterey Cypress left on this planet.  One is the Allan Grove here in Point Lobos, the other being the grove a few miles up the coast at Cypress Point.  These trees used to be more plentiful, but their range has diminished over the last fifteen thousand years as the climate has changed.  Point Lobos was established specifically for the protection of the Allan Grove.

Allan Memorial Grove, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

In 1890, Point Lobos was divided into lots to be sold for housing.  It's a tale as old as time in California, isn't it?  It would be called Point Lobos City.  In 1898, Alexander Allan began buying up the lots.  He recognized that the place was special.  He was not going to be shooting any buffalo through his window, nor would he let anyone else if he could help it.  He set the place up as a private park, charging an admission and allowing only a limited number of people in at any given time.  Eventually, California bought the land from the Allan family and it became the reserve we know today.

Pinnacle Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

When I'm bummed out by the callous behavior of some people, it's nice to remember that there are others who have stepped up to take care of places like this.  California's history is full of versions of this same story.  The most famous is John Muir's fight to save Yosemite.  His tireless work eventually led to the establishment of the National Park system.  Muir is the most well known example of a California man who saw through his window something that he wanted to ensure others would be able to see as well, but he was one of many who stepped up.  I'm not a particularly patriotic man, but I do feel a sense of pride when I think that the people that lived in this area of the world were some of the first to pull their guns back inside the train.

Cypress Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

OK.  Enough preaching.  Let's get on with the show . . .

The Old Veteran -- Cypress Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

A couple of trails were new to me on this loop.  One of them was the North Shore Trail.  It's 1.4 miles long and covers some slightly rough terrain, ending at Whaler's Cove.  It's also got some fine views of the rocks and ocean and meanders through some nice forested areas.  The Old Veteran can be easily viewed from a short spur trail near the Western end of the North Shore Trail.  The Old Veteran is a gnarly old Monterey Cypress that clings to the side of a cliff.  A lot of its roots are exposed and one can't help but wonder first how long it has been clinging to the side of the cliff and second how much longer can it hold out?

Whaler's Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA

Whaler's Cove pretty much marked the end of the loop for me.  From there, it was a short hike up the Carmelo Meadow Trail to the entrance of the park.  The hike took me around six hours to complete, meaning I was averaging about one mile an hour on the hike.  Obviously, I stopped a lot to look at things, explore interesting areas and take pictures.  All in all, it was a great way to spend the day.

Whaler's Cove, Point Lobos State Reserve, CA