coast camp, point reyes national seashore
Wednesday afternoon, my buddy Paul and I decided to get out of the city and enjoy us a bit of nature. We went up to the lovely Point Reyes National Seashore, a beautiful national park north of San Francisco, to camp for the night.
I’ve been to Point Reyes many times, but never to camp. Turns out, the park has some great camping, if you’re willing to hike a few miles. The campsite we chose, Coast Camp, is about a two mile hike in from the trailhead near the camp’s hostel.
It was a beautiful spot, about two hundred yards from the beach on Drakes Bay. The entire area is also still recovering from the 1995 Mount Vision Fire, which burned over 12,000 acres. The vegetation is largely new tree and chaparral growth.
The new growth is prime for small rodents, deer, and songbirds. We saw lots of critters; deer, quail, jack and cottontail rabbits, raccoons, coyotes, etc. I also saw a northern harrier a couple of times. I didn’t even know what it was until I got home and looked it up.
Best of all, Thursday morning was lovely. The beach was totally deserted, except for the carcass of a sea lion and his turkey vulture friends. I posted some photos in the gallery, so have a look if you like. Adult discretion is advised, however. I couldn’t resist taking some shots of the sea lion, and the ravens and zopilotes were not kind. But, it’s mostly pretty things, like trees and flowers.
Enjoy.