High Sierra Topix

With our daughter visiting from Europe, we thought it might be fun to get out of the house and do a little hiking near our Napa home. And Point Reyes was the destination of the day.

We had no idea it would be so successful.

The day was sparkling clear, and we could see the coast to south far beyond San Francisco, and to the west both North and South Farallon Islands were plain as day. And even though it was December, it was almost warm in the sun!

And then we started to see the wildlife.

First a herd of elk. Then another. Then a third. Then a herd of deer. The elephant seals on the beach--not just a few, but there were elephant seals on every beach we could see. And then more elk. And the we saw the coyote...hunting. And three more after that.

It reminded us of our wonderful visit to Yellowstone last summer, except that this was about an hour's drive from our house.

We will definitely be going back more often!

Here's a link to all the photos of the day: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dTnx1h8QLhQYJVuz6

That is an amazing animal count! Nice day for your daughter, especially if she's is coming from a big European city. Thanks for the inspiration to get up there Paul. Ian and Lizzie.

They are thinking of culling the herd there due to drought, or removing a fence that blocks free roam. We'll see which way that goes.

https://www.marinij.com/2022/04/03/poin ... -strategy/

Beautiful looking area, some really nice photos!

Paul -
Thank you for posting - glad your daughter had a wildlife-filled outing ! I was up that way in August; saw some elk all the way up along Bodega Harbor (hadn’t known they ranged so far from Pt Reyes).
I’m wondering if you also managed to stop in for any of the locally-made cheese ? A bit off-topic, but a nice goat cheese (with a glass of wine) seems like it would be right up your alley.

We were just there during the most recent Biannual Point Reyes Open Studios. One of the studios we visited showed the photographs of Carlos Porrata, a retired Park Ranger who has taken some amazing wildlife photographs. You can see some of them at https://www.carlosporrata.com/. There certainly appears to be a wide variety of wildlife to see if you know where to look and are patient enough.

grampy wrote: ↑Mon Dec 05, 2022 12:56 pm Paul -
Thank you for posting - glad your daughter had a wildlife-filled outing ! I was up that way in August; saw some elk all the way up along Bodega Harbor (hadn’t known they ranged so far from Pt Reyes).
I’m wondering if you also managed to stop in for any of the locally-made cheese ? A bit off-topic, but a nice goat cheese (with a glass of wine) seems like it would be right up your alley.

We're big fans of many of those cheeses--including cowgirl creamery, although they closed their shop in Point Reyes Station, the Palace Market in town still has a wonderful selection. yum!