Choose your distance and difficulty at Tomales Bay.
While summer fog swirls around the rugged headlands of Point Reyes
National Seashore, nearby Tomales Bay is sometimes sunnier and warmer,
protected by the peninsula's ridge. New trails and old favorites
offer a range of hiking and picnicking options near this bay, about an
hour's drive north of San Francisco. On the western side of the bay
Here, you'll find longer trails and more park facilities but less
isolation than along the eastern shore. At protected Heart's Desire
Beach, you can spread out a picnic or take a 1/2-mile self-guided nature
trail to learn how native Miwoks used plants and dug for oysters around
this bay. To walk a 3.6-mile loop, go southeast from Heart's Desire
to Pebble Beach, then take the Johnstone Trail uphill and return
(downhill) on the Jepson Trail. On the way, you'll pass
tree-sheltered picnic tables and an old grove of stately Bishop pines.
You'll also be rewarded with fine views of mile-wide, 13-mile-long
Tomales Bay, a drowned rift valley formed by the San Andreas Fault. From
State 1 at Point Reyes Station (so named because it was a stop on the
North Pacific Coast Railroad in the late 1800s), go northwest on Sir
Francis Drake Boulevard, then take Pierce Point Road to Tomales Bay
State Park (fee $3) and Heart's Desire. Some stops on the
bay's east side Drive northwest from Point Reyes Station on State
1; in about 1 1/2 miles, you reach the parking lot for a new Tomales Bay
access point (see page 7 of the March 1990 Sunset). Walk west about a
mile to the bay's edge and picnicking spots (no tables or
facilities) with a good view of Tomales Bay Ecological Reserve in the
marshlands below (no access). Bring binoculars to spot great blue herons
and snowy egrets fishing the shallows. Continue north another 3 miles on
State I to trailhead parking for Millerton Point. Art easy 1/2-mile walk
takes you through a eucalyptus grove to picnic tables or the shore of a
small peninsula and protected Alan Sieroty Beach. You might spot a pair
of osprey, which nest here from March through November.
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Title Annotation: | Tomales Bay State Park, California |
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Publication: | Sunset |
Date: | Jun 1, 1990 |
Words: | 358 |
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