After a dried up muffin and half a banana for breakfast, we headed off to explore Point Reyes National Seashore. (We had the other half for lunch!) We headed for the lighthouse first. Its a pretty long drive down the length of the peninsula. Curvy and bumpy all the way! As advertised, the lighthouse sits at the bottom of 300 steps! We had never intended to do that, but it was closed anyway. The lighthouse is a spectacular view! On the other side of the "fork" of the peninsula we walked out to an Elephant Seal view point! Ugly beasts! On our way we detoured up to the top of Vision Hill (1200'). We found a few good views but the road was closed at the top. (Woulda been nice if they'd said that at the bottom!)
We then drove back to Inverness and went the other way up to the Pierce Point Ranch. The whole of Point Reyes is quite remote, almost desolate! Some one called it "frontier". If one comes to explore, be sure to bring your snacks, water and gas - you won't find anything out here. Most of the land is used for cattle ranching or dairy farms. A number of ranches date back to the 1850s, when San Francisco had become a boom town during the gold rush. There is no agriculture, only cows. There is also a resident herd of Tule Elk, which were re-introduced n 1978. It is said that Sir Francis Drake landed here to repair his boat on his round-the-world adventure around 1580.
We left the park in mid-afternoon, retraced our path back to Rt 1, and headed north to Bodega Bay. We found our room at the Bodega Bay Inn (a quirky little place, but fine) a little after 4:00. We explored this little town which is primarily a commercial fishery with a large marina of working boats. We took the road up to the top of the point for a spectacular view of the rugged coastline.
Dinner at the Fishatarian! Great fried fish sandwiches.
We'll continue to head north on Rt 1 tomorrow, but with no particular destination.
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