Tuesday 8/22/17
One of the big
hikes I knew I wanted to tackle was Tomale Point. It’s 9.4 miles round trip from the parking
lot to the very tip of Tomale Point. And
here’s the best part, it’s through the Tule Elk Preserve. I even had to wait for a few to cross the
road en route to the trailhead.
This sign was at the trailhead. Do you think it went heeded, or ignored? Hmmmm
The trail
itself is heavily trafficked and simple to follow through rolling hills and
beautiful scenery on every side. What’s
not to like. As for the elk,
they got out of my way, but certainly let their annoyance be known. A few were quite vocal about it. It was still early and there was just one
group of hikers ahead of me. By afternoon there
would be a steady stream of them. But
for now, it was just myself and the elk. Some seemed curious and others were making a lot
of noise. At one point the trail dips
into a small canyon, the elk calls were echoing off the walls. Very cool!
The sign at the trailhead warned of a large
rockslide at the very end of the trail that took place in January. There are no barricades, just a few
signs. I had passed the other group of
hikers heading back and was alone. So,
if there had been a barricade, I probably would have hopped it anyway. I walked out as far as I could. So worth it.
On numerous occasions I had seen some colorful pink flowers along the roadside. There were quite a few along the trail. They're called Naked Ladies.
After a break for
lunch, I continued deeper into the Point Reyes National Seashore. The road had split earlier. One route went to Point Tomale, the other the
Point Reyes Lighthouse. It’s only open
on the weekends and I could only get so close.
We've all seen tall lighthouses. They're built that way to project their light over greater distances. Here in Pt. Reyes it was built as close to the water line as possible. The coastal fog gets thick enough that a tall lighthouse wouldn't be very efficient. Instead, the idea was to get the light underneath the fog banks.
One last stop on
this end of the park. There was a .9
mile trail out to a place called Chimney Rock. The road itself was in bad shape
and one car wide. For once everyone
seemed to be using the turnouts and waiting for others to pass.
The hike out was
only a gentle climb and easy. The point
at the end of the trail was blocked by a barricade. There were way too many people to even
consider jumping it. I never did see a
chimney shaped rock. It was obscured by the barricaded point.
All told it was around eleven miles worth of trails for the day. Not too bad. It was a nice warm up for the longer day I had in store. A day that would turn out much longer than I had anticipated.
No comments:
Post a Comment