Tomales point, Point Reyes national seashore

I hiked the gorgeous Tomales Point trail at the Tule Elk reserve, Point Reyes national seashore with my friend Sergio. It was a gorgeous day to be out on the trail — bright blue & sunny with a mild sea breeze. Overall it is about a 9-10 mile hike — 5 miles out and then 5 miles back on the same trail. I decided to carry all my photography gear which is about 20 lbs. I haven’t hiked with a full load post covid and my shoulders were violently protesting towards the end of the hike.

We headed our early in the morning — the goal was to shoot sunrise in Marin county and then head off to Tomales Point trail. The original plan was to get to Trojan point on the Pantoll road. However we were running a little behind and decided to shoot sunrise from the Bootjack campground. In hindsight it was a good decision since we found out that the Pantoll road is closed until sunrise — so its not useful destination to shoot sunrise. The sunrise was a beautiful pacific sunrise with vivid colors. The perspective over the bay was also very unique.

After an uneventful drive to Tomales point, we finally hit the trail around 8am and started hiking. A herd of elk sauntered past us right in the parking lot — I took it as a sign that we were going to see lots of elk on the day. If you are a birder this is the place to be. We saw a number of raptors hovering in close proximity on the drive to the trail — Sharp shinned hawk, Red breasted hawk, Peregrine falcon etc. This was quite a contrast from the mid peninsula hikes where we don’t encounter much fauna aside from the occasional quail.

It was cooler earlier in the day and there were very few people on the trail. I really enjoyed the solitude since the trail gets really crowded post 10am. The trail runs right by the coast and the views are really stunning all along this trail. About an hour into the hike we ran into a herd of elk bedded in right next to the trail. The elk in the reserve are fairly habituated and tolerate human presence as long as you stay on the trail. This is also one of the unique places where you can shoot the elk against the backdrop of the ocean.

There was a huge bull elk in the bushes (see image below) that I could not see and could only see his antlers. Against the background of the ocean and fog it made for a pretty cool shot! I waited for a while to see if he would stir, but he had no intention of moving!

Continuing on we reached the tip of the peninsula which is the end of the trail. The cliffs at the end of trail are quite stunning. You have a panoramic view of the entire Bodega bay. A flocks of Pelicans flew past us which was a sight to behold. You can also scramble down the cliffside to get a closer view of the surf and the rocks at the base of the cliff. We had our lunch sitting at the edge of the cliff, admiring the view. After the lunch we started hiking back up the trail. It was fairly hot by this time and the trail was fairly crowded as well. Overall it was an amazing hike and I would love to do this again next fall.