Exploring the Wilds of Point Reyes Peninsula

At the western edge of Marin County, about a 1 1/2-hour drive northwest of San Francisco, the Point Reyes Peninsula forms a fragile attachment to the rest of the land.

You step off the mainland onto a wild and varied terrain of seaside cliffs and gentle inland valleys, thundering surf and peaceful estuaries, wind-swept promontories and placid bays.

Historian Arthur Quinn likens the shape of the peninsula to the head of a coyote. At the tip of the coyote’s snout, jutting into the Pacific Ocean, is the point--a craggy headland that channels and amplifies the ocean winds. Gusts of more than 100 m.p.h. have been recorded here.

Treasures and Dangers

The coyote’s long, sweeping brow forms Point Reyes Beach, where hammering surf and swirling riptides bring treasures to the beachcomber but almost certain death to the swimmer.

Tomales Point is the ear, pointing north into Bodega Bay, with Tomales Bay to the east. There, tule elk graze among the brush and scrub trees while herons, cormorants and gulls sail overhead. Drake’s Estero, a huge, multifingered estuary, gives the coyote its grinning, gaping mouth, and Abbott’s Lagoon will make do for an eye.

In 1962 Congress took most of the peninsula into the national park system by creating the 70,000-acre Point Reyes National Seashore.

Protected from development, Point Reyes is a perfect place to spend a long weekend. Much of it is accessible by car and more than 150 miles of hiking trails cross the inland terrain of pastures, chaparral-covered ridges, forests and meadows. The climate is temperate, but varied and unpredictable.

Vagaries of Weather

Spring and summer mornings and evenings are likely to be foggy on the ocean side, while on winter days sunshine alternates with rain.

But the vagaries of the weather also bring rewards. March through May the hills and valleys are carpeted with California poppies, daisies and other blossoms. Early fall is perfect for sunbathing at peaceful Drake’s and Limantour beaches.

In late fall and again in spring Point Reyes welcomes its most graceful and majestic visitor, the California gray whale.

From December to May these huge mammals, up to 50 feet long, pass Point Reyes by the thousands as they shuttle between the Bering Sea and the Gulf of California, where their calves are born.

They come much closer to shore during their spring northward journey--so close that you can sometimes see the barnacles on their backs.

Marine Life to Watch

Whale watchers outfitted with binoculars and telephoto lenses flock to the peninsula during these months, hoping to catch a glimpse of a whale’s shimmering gray back or the white vapor from its blowhole. Often they are lucky, but if not, there is consolation in the seals and the California murres, beautiful white birds with graceful black heads and necks.

The most popular whale-watching spot is the Point Reyes Lighthouse at the western tip of the point. The lighthouse’s beam first shone in 1870, and it was none too soon. About 40 ships had crashed into Point Reyes over the previous 400 years.

Today the gleaming white lighthouse can be visited by anyone willing and able to climb the 307 steps from the lighthouse visitor center.

Although the wind and surf pound the point and the northern beaches--the coyote’s snout and brow--just to the south lie the peaceful waters of Drake’s Bay, which lap the easy curve of the beast’s chin and neck.

The shore is lined with long sandy beaches and white cliffs streaked with the browns, grays and yellows of silt stone, mudstone and sandstone.

Drake Visited in 1579

In 1579 English navigator Sir Francis Drake and his crew, returning from the north after their failed attempt to find the fabled strait of Anian (which was thought to connect the northern Pacific with the northern Atlantic), put into these waters to rest and make repairs.

Struck by the resemblance of the harbor’s cliffs to those of Dover, Drake named the surrounding land Nova Albion (New Britain) and claimed it for Queen Elizabeth.

You can drive to two of the bay’s beaches, Drake’s and Limantour. At Drake’s Beach the visitor center is filled with exhibits, and there are showers to wash off the sand after swimming or picnicking.

Next door at Drake’s Beach Cafe you can buy an avocado-and-shrimp sandwich and a cup of hot lemonade, sit at a wooden table outside and listen to the surf and watch as murres, petrels, puffins and gulls dance in the air. Or take a short stroll down the beach to the mouth of Drake’s Estero, where historians believe Drake anchored his Golden Hind 400 years ago.

Johnson’s Oyster Farm

The estuary reaches deep into the peninsula with four finger-like inlets. At the end of the largest one, Schooner Bay, is Charlie Johnson’s oyster farm. Since the mid-1930s this has been the home of Ostrea gigas, a sweet, plump specimen that rivals the best offerings of the East Coast.

Johnson, 76, was a wheat farmer in Oklahoma and Missouri before he went to work for Van Kamps Sea Foods. In 1957 he bought this farm from Van Kamps, and today he and his 40 employees produce up to 75,000 gallons of oysters each year. Johnson has plenty on hand, and he will sell them to you right out of a wooden shed just around the corner from where they are harvested.

Point Reyes Station is the largest town around. On California 1, it was once a railroad center. The old yellow train depot is the post office now and the red roundhouse the community center.

The town’s three-block main street is lined with restaurants, tack shops, a feed store, a bookstore and the Palace Market, which stocks a good selection of wines and cheeses.

Artisans, Good Food

Just off the main drag are artisans’ shops, including the Black Mountain Weavers and mask maker Beverly Toyu at the Old Creamery, and several art galleries.

But most important is former jazz singer Pat Healey’s Station House Cafe, which has earned a place on the circuit of California’s top North Coast eateries. For breakfast, lunch or dinner, this is the place to eat in the Point Reyes area. Typical specials include fresh salmon with dill butter, monkfish with lime and green peppercorn sauce, and chicken breast with an orange apricot sauce. And you can order Charlie Johnson’s Drake’s Bay oysters steamed or deep fried, every day.

Point Reyes is a land apart. And it is restless. It is right on California’s fabled San Andreas Fault. On April 18, 1906--the day of the San Francisco earthquake--it lurched 20 feet along the fault, pulling roads and paths asunder.

Near the national seashore’s visitor center in Bear Valley you can walk Earthquake Trail and see a picket fence, part of which moved several yards during that earthquake.

The peninsula drifts three inches northwest each year, and geologists believe that in about 5 million years it will be torn from the mainland, breaking into small islands as it moves on. Until then, it is there to enjoy.

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Point Reyes is reached from San Francisco by heading north on U.S. 101, then west at Greenbrae on Sir Francis Drake Highway. Or for a more scenic and less direct route, take California 1 north of Sausalito and wind through the Muir Woods and along the coastline.

There are bed-and-breakfast inns in Inverness, gateway to the peninsula.

The B&B;, 10 Inverness Way, Box 63, Inverness 94937, phone (415) 669-1648, is small and cozy, with antiques and patchwork quilts. The double room rates, $85 to $95, include a full breakfast with specialties such as banana-buckwheat pancakes.

The Blackthorne Inn, 266 Vallejo Ave., Box 712, Inverness Park 94937, phone (415) 663-8621, is a soaring fantasy of redwood, cedar and stained glass, with a hot tub and decks. Rates range from $95 to $155 and include breakfast.

Where to Eat

The Station House Cafe, at Main and 3rd streets, Point Reyes Station, phone (415) 663-1515, is a must. Breakfast for two runs $10-$15, lunch $15-$20 and dinner $20-$40, without wine.

For a fast lunch or a cappuccino, try the Gray Whale, 12781 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., phone (415) 669-1244. Lunch is $8-$10 while dinner runs $10-$12.

For general information on Point Reyes National Seashore, write to Bear Valley Visitor Center, Point Reyes National Seashore, Point Reyes 94956, or call (415) 663-1092. Reservations are necessary for hiking and backpacking in restricted areas.

Reservations for whale watching boat trips on weekends and holidays from January through April can be made at New Sea Angler and Jaws, Box 1148, Bodega Bay 94923, phone (707) 875-3495. A 3 1/2- to 4-hour whale-watching trip is $25 for adults and $20 for children under 12. During weekdays, groups of 15 or more can be accommodated by special arrangement.