Point Reyes – Tule Elk Preserve

Marin County is by far one of the most naturally beautiful places to live.  This is evident in a number of ways; from the sweeping urban views of San Francisco from places like Sausalito or Tiburon to the thoughtfully preserved natural hillsides in the Marin Headlands, from the top of Mt. Tam to the foggy coast with stunning cliff-sides and hidden beaches.  Point Reyes is such a place, jutting off to form Tomales Bay on the east with the mighty Pacific Ocean on the south and west shore of this awesome land formation.

What makes this place so cool?  Well, it is for the most part a free place to roam around, part of  the National Park Service and there are a bunch of really neat, quirky things about the land.  First, there are a lot of dairy farms out on the point, essentially leasing the land their cows graze on from the NPS.  The ranches that the dairy’s are located on are historical ranches where cows have grazed for a while.  The Coast Miwok lived…

On Tomales Bay: Echa-kolum, Shotommo-wi (near the mouth of San Antonio Creek), Sakloki (opposite Tomales Point, Dillon Beach area), Utumia (Near present-day town of Tomales.)  and At the present-day town of Olema: Olema-loke.

We traveled out to Pt. Reyes for an afternoon of hiking, looking at Tule Elk and the many coastal birds, and maybe a walk on the beach, or a look at the lighthouse.  Well we did most of that stuff, and found a place that epitomizes the term micro-climate.  You can almost find a different, distinct weather pattern every ¼ mile or so, walking in just about any direction out on Pt. Reyes.
Fortunately for Dorothy and I we headed up to the Tule Elk preserve to bother the small herd, and kind of think about how the “collective” we have essentially brought this breed back from the edge of extinction and now are scratching our heads how best to “manage” the herd, since this group of elk are pinned into the end of the point, and they really should have some more room to elk around in.  Dairy farming sort of prevents that sharing of pasture land with the elk.

So with that in mind we walked around  on a pretty easy trail that starts you out in a historic ranch that houses info and stuff now for the park.  You start in going around a hillside, and head out towards the rugged coast line.  The drop off is a couple hundred feet in some parts, but there aren’t any technical paths that put you in danger.  Being this high up above sea level puts birds right at eye level as they catch ocean breezes and soar around.

The crows seemed as interested at seeing us as we were to be seeing them, just a few feet away, just coasting along on the wind, cawing away.

I spoke about the micro-climates earlier and we finally hit that point of feeling the weather just suddenly start changing, as the fog decided to make its march onto the beach, up the cliffs and across the point.  So we turned around, to see a small group of Tule Elk chilling up on the hillside beside the path.  Their heads perked up as they, one by one, became aware of our presence in their yard.  We stood around, checking them out with the zoom lens on our camera, snapping a few pictures, then started back to the ranch.

The beach was ruled out this time, but as we started our drive off the point, we decided to take Sir Francis Drake to the end where the Point Reyes Lighthouse sits but by the time we got there, the weather had turned into the fog equivalent of a blizzard.  There was Zero visibility, with wicked fast winds.  What’s the point in enduring that to see a lighthouse?  Especially since there is no doubt that I will make my way to Point Reyes many times down the line.