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Point Reyes National Seashore

Point Reyes is a great place to conduct your very own time-motion study of the San Andreas Fault. Evidence of both slow- and fast-moving forces can be found at the national seashore. Wave-torn rocks of the craggy coast match rocks in the Tehachapi Mountains more than 300 miles to the south. Many plants and shrubs found on the west side of the fault are pre-Ice Age relics not found on the east side.

Plates forming the earth’s crust do not always creep quietly past each other, of course. In 1906 they clashed violently, and the result was California’s worst natural disaster, the San Francisco earthquake. Point Reyes was shoved 16.4 feet to the northwest. A cow barn, located near the park rangers’ headquarters, was ripped in two. A corner of the barn stayed on the foundation and the rest was carried sixteen feet away.

Rangers at Point Reyes National Seashore encourage visitors to take a close look at the San Andreas. You can watch the seismograph, which constantly measures the earth’s quivers, or take the self-guided Earthquake Trail (a memorable nature trail). One sees creeks and fences that were rearranged by the 1906 quake and the spot where, a colorful legend has it, an unfortunate cow was swallowed up by the heaving earth, leaving only her tail waving above ground.

Along with the earthquake-displaced land, the ocean is an overwhelming presence here. Pt. Reyes is bounded on three sides by more than 50 miles of bay and ocean frontage. The point, described as hammer-headed--or wing-shaped by the more poetic--literally and figuratively sticks out and stands out from California’s fairly straight-trending coast north of San Francisco.

British explorer Sir Francis Drake is said to have been the first to arrive on these shores in 1579. Long before--and after--European discovery, the native Coast Miwok lived well off the land’s bounty: elk, deer, fish, shellfish, acorns, berries and much more.

Since the 1850s, milk cows have grazed the lush grasses of the peninsula, and such dairy operations continue today. Butter produced here has been particularly prized by San Francisco gourmets.

As early as the 1930s, the National Park Service worked to purchase Pt. Reyes and add it to the park system. The price tag for Depression-mired America was too steep at that time, then World War II interrupted all park plans.

During the post-war housing boom of the 1950s, real estate developers sought to carve up the peninsula into golf courses, residential and commercial parcels. The park service, Marin conservationists, and concerned Californians rallied to the peninsula’s protection. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the bill establishing Pt. Reyes National Seashore.

In hindsight, some conservationists believe that the drawn-out preservation process actually benefited Pt. Reyes because in the interim attitudes shifted a bit from parks-as-playgrounds to parks-as-nature preserves. Few roads or recreation facilities were constructed. The area’s three tiny towns--Olema, Pt. Reyes Station, Inverness--have remained very small. San Franciscans have an altogether different attitude toward their wilderness-next-door than, say, Bostonians have toward summer-crowded Cape Cod National Seashore. 

Some 24,200 acres of the national seashore’s wildest terrain was designated wilderness in 1985 and named for the late Congressman Phillip Burton. Burton, a longtime San Francisco representative, was a staunch wilderness advocate and accomplished environmental legislator who greatly increased the size and number of America’s wilderness areas.

The weather adds to the wilderness feeling of Pt. Reyes. High winds scour the beaches, and heavy, heavy fogs often blanket the peninsula. While Pt. Reyes is always memorable, it’s not always postcard-pretty. Several drought years, combined with a severe 1995 fire that scorched some 12,000 acres, have left some sections of the national seashore forlorn and unattractive. Yet nature has its way of healing. What was a  blackened slope in summer has become an emerald green grassland dotted with a host of wildflowers.

Pt. Reyes is a haven for birds; not surprisingly, it makes Audubon magazine’s “Top Ten National Seashores” list. A diversity of habitats--seashore, forest, chaparral and more--is one reason the bird count exceeds 430 species. Because Pt. Reyes thrusts ten miles into the Pacific, it lures many winter migrants. Limantour and Drake esteros (estuaries) are resting and feeding areas for many species of shorebirds and waterfowl.

Other wildlife-watching opportunities abound. A resident Tule elk herd roams the Tomales Point area. Pt. Reyes Lighthouse is a premier spot for winter whale-watching. Migrating California gray whales swim close by the point.

When hiking, the awesome forces that shaped this land are often evident. You can hike along the earthquake rift zone, tramp along creeks flowing through the peninsula’s fissures, and from the ridges look down at Olema Valley, the 1906 quake’s epicenter.

More than a hundred miles of trail meandering through the 71,000-acre national seashore beckon the hiker to explore wide grasslands, Bishop pine and Douglas fir forest, chaparral-cloaked coastal ridges and windswept beaches. The paths range from easy beach walks and nature hikes to rugged mountain rambles. Some excellent trail camps along, or near, the Coastal Trail suggest a weekend backpacking trip.

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