High Sierra Topix

I combined a trip to Point Reyes with attending my grandson's fifth birthday party and visiting in-laws. This made for an odd trip - stopped and visited on first day so got to trailhead about 3PM with a short 1.8 mile walk into Coast Camp. This gave me time for a walk down the beach and some evening photos. Thursday night it was cold, and once dew point hit, moisture oozed out of the air, making it "rain" inside my tent.

Next day I did a 15-mile day hike loop - Coast Trail to Bear Valley Trail, Old Pine Trail, Sky Trail, Sky Camp, Fire Lane, back to my car (because I forgot to put the parking permit in the window) and back to Sky Camp via the longer Coast Tail. I was tired! I watched the sunset from my campsite picnic table. It was an amazing sunset, going on forever and I regretted not getting up and going down to the beach, but the photos were pretty good anyway. It was much warmer this night - so warm that I actually was hot. Nevertheless, fog rolled in and again tent was soaking wet inside. Saturday morning I quickly walked back to the trailhead, observing that one car without a permit got ticketed, thus, the extra walk to my car the previous day was a wise choice. Then down the road one hour to San Anselmo to a busy party with 20 hyper little boys from 2 to 5 years old!


Interesting erosion on the beach


First day late evening beach shots


mellow evening beach


interesting rocks on the beach on Day 2 walk


Bear Valley Trail


Old Pine Trail


Nice sunset 2nd day



Sunset, from orange to pink

That was quite a hike the second day, especially with all the up and down. The Old Pine Trail is perhaps my wife's and I favorite trail at Point Reyes. I usually take the Coast Trail to Coast Camp even though it's longer for the section by the creek/marsh where there is sometimes interesting wildlife and for the part where you can cut down to the beach and walk along the beach to Coast Camp. You must have been at campsite 1 (my favorite) from the beautiful sunset photos. I also loved the two beach rock formation photos. Those rocks have long been a fascination of mine. Thank you for posting your report.

WD, your pictures are beautiful. Thanks for sharing.