Sunday 17 June 2012

Point Reyes: Look, a whale! and Muir Woods: Look, a shitload of people!

Em organised a surprise weekend trip to Point Reyes that was a lot of fun. We visited the historic lighthouse, and walked down the 308 steps to see it up close. While we were there we saw a baby grey whale quite close - just beyond the waves breaking on the rocks.



After that we checked out the seals and then hiked out to Chimney rock.



And then hung out on Drake's beach for a while, where E ate more sand and crawled after various groups of kids. The weather was surprisingly nice, especially since Point Reyes is renowned for its fog. So much so that John Carpenter filmed The Fog there. We stayed at a great little B&B and had some really good meals, including local seafood, in the town of Point Reyes Station.



On our way home we did some redwood hikes in Muir Woods. Like the last time we tried to visit, it was stupidly busy. We walked more than 1 km from where we parked the car to the entrance of the park. Honestly I don't think it is worth it, the boardwalk loop is disney-fied nature with theme-park-size crowds. That may just be me though, I have realised that my enjoyment of natural places is inversely proportional to the number of humans present.

I'd recommend Henry Cowell instead: it has redwoods that are just as good with way less people. If you are going, I'd recommend getting one of the many shuttle services that operates during spring/summer.

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