McClure's Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, looking south on an overcast winter's afternoon
Point Reyes National Seashore is 70,000 acre (283 km²) park preserve located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California. Although not designated as a national park, it is maintained by the National Park Service as a nationally important preserve.
Description
Point Reyes National Seashore
The peninsula is a well defined area, separated from the rest of Marin County by a rift zone of the San Andreas Fault; about half of this is sunk below sea level and forms Tomales Bay. The small town of Point Reyes Station forms the gateway to the peninsula and provides most services to it, though some services are also available at Inverness on the west shore of Tomales Bay.
The preserve includes wild coastal beaches and headlands, estuaries, and uplands. Although parts of the peninsula are commercially farmed, and parts are under the jurisdiction of other conservation authorities, the National Park Service provides signage and seeks to manage visitor impact on the entire peninsula.
The northernmost part of the peninsula is maintained as a reserve for tule elk, which are readily seen there. The preserve is also very rich in raptors and shorebirds.
The Point Reyes Lighthouse attracts whale-watchers looking for the Gray Whale migrating north in mid-January and south in mid-March.
The Point Reyes National Seashore attracts 2.5 million visitors annually.
Hiking
Bear Valley Trail is the most popular hike in the park. Taking off from the visitor's center, it travels mostly streamside through a shaded, fern-laden canyon, breaking out at Divide Meadow before heading gently downward to the coast, where it emerges at the spectacular ocean view at Arch Rock. Three trails connecting from the west with the Bear Valley trail head upward toward Mt. Wittenberg, at 1407 feet, the highest point in the park.
At the western end of the Point Reyes Peninsula is the historic Point Reyes Lighthouse, reached by 308 steps. Nearby is the short Chimney Rock hike, which is especially noted for its spring wildflower displays.
As befitting a national seashore, Point Reyes offers several beach walks. Limantour Spit winds up on a narrow sandy beach, from which Drakes Beach can be glimpsed across Drakes Bay. North Beach and South Beach are often windswept and wave-pounded. Ocean vistas from higher ground can be seen from the Tomales Point Trail and, to the south, from the Palomarin trailhead at the park's southern entrance outside the town of Bolinas.
For backpackers, Point Reyes has four hike-in campgrounds available by reservation.
Flora
In his book The Natural History of the Point Reyes Peninsula, Jules Evens identifies several plant communities. One of the most prominent is the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forest, which covers most of the Bear Valley trail and the Inverness Ridge through which it passes.
The Bishop pine (Pinus muricata) forest is found on slopes in the northern half of the park. Many of these trees growing in thick swaths came from seeds released after the 1995 Mt. Vision fire.
The other communities identified by Evens are the coastal strand, dominated by European beach grass (Ammophila arenaria), ice plant, sea rocket (Cakile maritima) and other species that thrive on the immediate coast; northern coastal prairie, found on a narrow strip just inland from the coastal strand that includes some native grasses; coastal rangeland, the area still grazed by the cattle from the peninsula's remaining working ranches; northern coastal scrub, dominated by coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis); marshlands--salt, brackish, and freshwater--and the intertidal and subtidal plant communities.
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