On the Edge of the Continent, Wildflowers and Woodlands

The Rift Zone Trail at Point Reyes National Seashore is accurately named: It follows the San Andreas fault. But the terrain it crosses appears less like a textbook example of plate tectonics and more like a lesson in Marin County’s natural beauty: meadows, woodlands and wildflowers.

Back in the 1800s, a judge named James Shafter owned the land and built a magnificent Victorian home he called the Oaks. He gave the mansion to his son Payne as a 30th birthday present in 1875.

The Vedanta Society, a religious organization with origins in India, purchased the property in 1946 and turned it into a retreat center for study and meditation. (The National Park Service has first option to buy the land, should the Vedanta Society ever want to sell it.) The area remains open to hikers, provided they observe posted rules similar to those on national parkland: No vehicles, dogs or smokers are allowed, and hikers must remember to close livestock gates.

If you can arrange a car shuttle, this is an ideal one-way journey. Rift Zone Trail is mostly flat, so it doesn’t matter which way you hike. I prefer to end the journey at Bear Valley Visitor Center, which has restrooms and water fountains.

Another option is hiking to the hamlet of Olema. A short spur trail leads to “downtown,” at the junction of California Highway 1 and Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. You’ll find a little store and deli, a restaurant-tavern and the Point Reyes Seashore Lodge, a good spot for travelers who want to make a weekend out of hiking. The staff knows local trails, and a footpath starts at the lodge’s back door, crosses a creek and cow pasture, then connects with the Rift Zone Trail.

Directions to trail head: From California 1 about nine miles north of Stinson Beach and 3.5 miles south of Olema, turn west at the signed turnoff for Five Brooks and drive a quarter-mile to a large parking area.

The hike: Near the trail head, you’ll see a pond that a lumber company created in the 1950s so it could float logs to a sawmill. When the national seashore was established in 1962, the practice of chain-sawing the Douglas firs stopped. Hikers will spot some venerable firs that escaped the loggers, as well as young firs that are replacing the original forest.

Walk west toward Inverness Ridge, and in 0.2 mile you’ll reach a horse camp. You’ll descend to join signed Rift Zone Trail among clusters of California hazelnut, passing a path that leads to Firtop and crossing a branch of Olema Creek.

After a mellow mile, the path switchbacks up to Vedanta Society land. You then travel two miles along an old farm road. The canopy of the humid forest wraps hikers in a quiet cocoon of ferns, fir and bay trees.

Walk around a corral, pass through a pasture with grazing black cattle, then go northwest across a field toward cypress and eucalyptus lining the road to the Vedanta Society retreat.

As you cross the meadow, look eastward for a short connector trail leading to the back door of the Point Reyes Seashore Lodge. If you’re looking for a place to rest your legs or grab a drink, Olema establishments are a short walk from there.

Rift Zone Trail continues behind the lodge, passes through a gate, ascends a knoll and then drops into a pretty little meadow extending to Bear Valley. The trail’s end is a junction with Bear Valley Trail close to the national seashore’s Bear Valley Visitor Center.

For more of John McKinney’s tips, visit https://www.thetrailmaster.com.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Rift Zone Trail

WHERE: Point Reyes National Seashore

DISTANCE: From Five Brooks to Olema is 4 miles one way; to Bear Valley Visitor Center is 4.6 miles one way with 200-foot elevation gain.

TERRAIN: Meadows, fir forest.

HIGHLIGHTS: A splendid jaunt matched with interesting geology.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Moderate

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Point Reyes National Seashore, tel. (415) 464-5100