|
|---|
| To Main Page | To Travel in America | To California Coast |
|---|
It was the middle of January, 2012, when the two of us were to go to Point Reyes and watch the whale migration. Unfortunately Sharon was not able to go and I decided to drive up there for the day. The weather was nice in our area, but it turned out that the coast was covered with fog. In addition, I knew that when I went for a hike along Drakes Beach, the tide was still rising. Again, sometimes you win, sometimes you loose. Note my recommendations at the end. |
|---|
 |
|---|
When I arrived at Drakes Beach I was greeted by this huge elephant seal. He was perfectly content to 'sun' himself in the deep fog surrounding the cliffs along this part of the peninsula. Here is a view from space. The road comes from the north, passes a dairy ranch in the upper left and ends at the parking lot. This is a flat area and beach where Captain Francis Drake was supposed to have met the Miwok Indians and repaired his ship the Golden Hind in 1579. Another possibility is the mouth of the large estuary further east. |
|---|
 |
|---|
The red line above shows the route I took. It was close to high tide but I decided to follow the beach east as far as I could. That also meant some fast darting around some bluffs as the waves rolled out. The two pictures below are looking back. |
|---|
 |
|---|
 |
|---|
I arrived at a spot where the beach was gone. It was at an outlet of an estuary and the only way was to wait for the tide to go out and go back the way I came or climb across a dirt wall to the other side. A younger fellow led the way and from there it was trudging through some clay and climbing steep slopes to the top of the bluffs. Despite the fog the views were interesting. |
|---|
 |
|---|
 |
|---|
 |
|---|
 |
It was obvious the two of us were not the only ones who had done this. There were several narrow paths from previous visitors. Some of these were right near the edge of the steep slopes. I tended to stay away from the edge, followed my nose going west again towards the open area of Drake Beach. The total distance covered was only 1.5 miles but it seemed a lot longer because of the climb up the bluff. These two crows must have thought I was crazy doing this. But I guess they smelled my sandwich in the backpack. |
 |
|---|
 |
|---|
When I got back to the car, I decided to go to the light house. Sure enough the fog was even heavier here and not only could I not see any whales, the ocean was gone also. There is a narrow road that leads to the steps down to the light house. The top picture was taken along this road. |
|---|
 There are 302 steps and a couple steep slopes that takes you down to the little building and light house. There is a display of the steam and air horns that were used to warn ships of the dangerous clifs. To keep the horns and lights operational must have been a boring job. Fog is common. |
 |
|---|
If I were to do this day trip again, I would make sure the weather and tides are right for the day. Here are a couple links that may help: |
|---|