Point Reyes National Seashore Overview

Drakes Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, California (Stockbyte/Getty)

Point Reyes National Seashore

Contact Details
Point Reyes National Seashore
1 Bear Valley Rd.
Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
Visitor Information: 415-464-5100

If you want to see marine mammals at play, Point Reyes National Seashore is wet and wild. An elephant seal overlook at Drake's Bay offers an impressive vantage point from which to view the 5,000-pound elephant seals as they form a breeding colony from December to March.
Four campgrounds in Point Reyes National Seashore are accessible only by biking, hiking, or horseback riding. Sky Camp is the easiest to reach at only 1.4 miles from the Sky trailhead. Glen Camp is set in a wind-protected, wooded valley. Coast and Wildcat Camps are within a few hundred feet of the ocean. Backpack the Coast Trail and stay at a different camp each night, or pick one camp and stay for a while.
There are no bad trails in Point Reyes for birding, but one of the best, easy bird-watching walks is the Muddy Hollow Trail to Limantour Beach. The trail passes a pond favored by waterfowl as it travels to the estero and beach, where sandpipers, willets, egrets, and herons are easily spotted. Black phoebes, marsh wrens, and song sparrows can be spotted amid the coastal scrub.
Paddle the glassy waters of Tomales Bay with its sheltered coves, tidal marshes, remote beaches, shallow lagoons, and forested ridges. The 15-mile long bay is a pupping site for harbor seals and is the largest unspoiled coastal embayment on the coast of California.

By Travel Expert: Ann Marie Brown

Published: 6 Oct 2008 | Last Updated: 13 Sep 2011
Details mentioned in this article were accurate at the time of publication

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