[Summary from my April 2013 post] A spectacular meeting of land and ocean, Point Reyes National Seashore is one of my favorite places anywhere. Point Reyes has incredible variety from rugged beaches to waterfalls to lush forests. With nearly 150 miles of trails to explore, there always seems to be something new to experience on each visit. Most of the trail miles are within the Phillip Burton Wilderness, the only federally designated wilderness along California’s coast aside from the King Range Wilderness at Humboldt County’s Lost Coast. Covering 33,373 acres of wilderness and “potential’ wilderness, the road-less land encompasses nearly half of the total 71,070 acres of Point Reyes. 
On this day Erica and I set out from Bear Valley on a 24 mile lollipop loop of the southern portion of Point Reyes. Along the way we had great variety from the fir forests on Greenpicker Trail, Lake Ranch Trail and Ridge Trail to the coastal scenery of Alamere Falls, Wildcat Beach and Arch Rock. It was great to check out some trails I had never seen in the interior part of Point Reyes and revisit some familiar scenes along the coast in different lighting and tidal conditions. Trails in the interior of southern Point Reyes are heavily wooded and solitude can be found with few visitors. The coastal scenery was beautiful as usual and the photo above shows late afternoon sunlight coming underneath Arch Rock, providing a twist on this extremely photogenic scene that I have captured numerous times. Other photos from this loop are located below. There are so many awesome trails in Point Reyes the options for designing aesthetic routes for long runs is virtually limitless. I imagine it won’t be long before I’m back at the Seashore. Strava route here.
A selection of photo albums and reports from past trips to Point Reyes:
- April 2013: Central Point Reyes
- March 2012: (1) Sculptured Beach, (2) Kelham Beach & Arch Rock, (3) Secret Beach, (4) Tidepooling
- December 2012: Alamere Falls, Arch Rock, Kelham Beach, Sculptured Beach
- December 2011
- December 2010: Alamere Falls and Phantom Falls
- January 2009: My first time at Point Reyes
Leor Pantilat's Adventures
Hi
Love the article on the Point Reyes Southern district. A buddy and I have been running 20 to 30 mile routes once a week in Point Reyes for the past year or so. We have been up and down pretty much every trail in the park and we absolutely love the place! There are so many trails to run with such varied terrain that we never get tired of the place.
David