I'm on my way out of California for a new adventure in the pacific so I'm trying to spend these last couple weeks hitting some of the places I still haven't been to around the bay. Although I say that, this wasn't really something I had on a bucket list of day hikes I wanted to do, in fact I have no list like that. I was just panning around the map and realized that I had been to most of the parts of Point Reyes Nation Seashore, but not the northernmost tip.
I really like the idea of visiting the extreme ends of places and seeing something named "point" inspired me to visit.
The hike from the trailhead to the point was a relatively flat out and back but, as with other parts of Point Reyes, it was super windy which led to a somewhat unpleasant hike out and a fast hike back.
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I missed taking a picture, but the trailhead is at some retired farm/barn buildings that look kinda haunted. This leads to a gentle climb after which the views start taking off in a major way. |
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After following the ridge line for a bit, the trail starts to descend into Windy Gap (which lives up to its name) where I saw the first of what is probably the highlight of this trip, the elk. |
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Shortly after Windy Gap the trail starts to climb again, this time a bit steeper. Something worth noting is that I was surprised to see so many other hikers at this point. The drive out here was rough and pretty far. There also wasn't really much signage indicating that there was something cool at the end of the road. Near the top of the climb, a very photogenic coyote appeared. He seemed very used to humans and had no problem getting super close to myself and the other hikers. |
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A mile or so of descending and I came across a large group of elk, some of them seemed to just be starting off into the beautiful ocean view. |
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Further down the descent was an opening near a spring where it seemed like 2 groups of elk were having some kind of beef. |
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A bit more climbing after this, this time on sand actually. The spot is called Tomales Mounds according to google. Hiking in sand is never fun but at least the scenery was good while doing it. |
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The final stop before the point was bird island. Wonder why its called that? Getting here was just some more flat ridge line if I remember correctly. |
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And here's the destination! Very cool. I had also read about some special duck being here and I think I finally saw them being pushed around by the waves. |
All that was left was to go back the way I came, nice having the wind at my back for the way back!