Point Reyes National Seashore ⓘ

Before the Europeans came to California, the Coast Miwok people were the inhabitants of what we now call Marin and southern Sonoma Counties. They knew and blended with this bountiful land for thousands of years, developing a rich economy based on gathering, fishing and hunting. Village communities of 75 to several hundred people developed in sheltered places near fresh water and plentiful food. "Kule Loklo" (meaning "Bear Valley") is a recreated village. It stands where no village ever was, but where one might have stood.

Coast Miwok life was intricately woven into the changing seasons. In the late spring, fresh new greens of Indian lettuce, young nettle leaves and clover were gathered. Fire-hardened digging sticks were used by the women to reach deep-set roots and bulbs. The ocean provided kelp in large amounts, some to be eaten fresh, the rest dried and stored for the winter. Tule was gathered in the fall for skirts and tule baskets. The summer sun ripened grasses and flower seeds, gathered by hitting the ripened seed with a beater basket and letting them fall directly into a collecting basket.

Fall was the season for collecting a variety of nuts: acorns (stored in a granary for year-round consumption), buckeye, hazel and bay. Tule was cut and dried for kotcas (houses), boats and mats. Gray willow for baskets and traps was abundant. Winter and early spring were times of shortage when stored acorns, seeds and kelp became important food sources.

The ocean provided food year-round. Crab, clams, mussels, abalone, limpets and oysters were some of the seafood gathered by the women in the tidal zones. Cleaned of meat, the shells were also fully utilized. Abalone shells were made into beautiful ornaments. The Washington clam was one of the most important shells; these were ground into circular, flat disk beads with a hole drilled in the middle. Strings of these beads were the main trade item (money) and were used extensively through Northern California.

The men adopted many different techniques for fishing. Dip nets (bags of netting attached to wooden frames on a handle) were used to scoop up fish, and woven surf nets were used along the open beaches. Cone-shaped traps of woven gray willow were set up in creeks and mouths of rivers. With hook and bait one could successfully catch halibut and rockfish year-round.

Hunting by use of traps and bow and arrow supplied the Coast Miwok with meat, fur and tools. Traps were used to capture such game as quail, acorn woodpeckers and rabbits, which were highly valued for their fur and meat. Deer were usually hunted with bow and arrow, and provided many necessary items. Antler tips were used for shaping arrowheads, sinew (muscle tendon) was used to fasten points to arrow shafts and leg bones were made into awls (needles used in basketmaking) and hair pins. In this way, the Coast Miwok wasted little of the animals they hunted.

In 1953, Congress passed Public Law 280, which turned over law enforcement on California reservations to state and county agencies. By 1958, the federal government "terminated" the recognition of Coast Miwok people as well as many other tribes.

After over 40 years, the Coast Miwok are once again a federally recognized tribe. Legislation was signed in December 2000 granting the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok, full rights and privileges afforded federally recognized tribes. Currently there are almost 500 members registered with the tribe.

As you explore Kule Loklo, try to imagine the lives of the people who lived so intimately with the land. In the old days, a village like Kule Loklo would have been a busy place... acorns being pounded into meal by women with stone mortar and pestle, basket weavers chatting as they worked under the sun shade, cooking fires smoking with mussels baking or deer roasting, children laughing and playing , new dancers learning songs and steps in the dance house, hunters flaking obsidian for knife blades.

The Coast Miwok people lived in the same village, such as this, for hundreds of years. As we contemplate their existence here, we may learn from them an approach to life and land, which could be sustained for hundreds or thousands of years. As the first caretakers of Point Reyes, the Coast Miwok people continue to teach us much.

Join us for a Ranger-Guided walk to Kule Loklo , a replica Coast Miwok village. This walk is open to the public every Sunday at 10:30 am. Meet at the Bear Valley Visitor Center. Guided walks may also be offered at 10:30 am on weekdays during spring, summer, and winter breaks.

Point Reyes National Seashore offers a free, curriculum-based, ranger-led program focusing on Kule Loklo and the Coast Miwok to third- and fourth-grade school groups.

Visit the Miwok Archeological Preserve of Marin's website. From the 1970s to 2019, (MAPOM) helped build and maintain Kule Loklo, offered California Indian skills classes at Kule Loklo, and hope to resume classes in the future.

A 2008 research project, called the Tamál-Húye Archeological Project, focused on intercultural interactions and processes of culture change and continuity in sixteenth-century northern California resulting from the shipwreck of the Manila galleon San Agustín , which occurred in tamál-húye , the Coast Miwok name for present-day Drakes Bay, in 1595. The project investigated whether this event, and the material culture introduced as a result, was a source of long-term Coast Miwok cultural change or if significant change came later with eighteenth and nineteenth century colonialism. The study examined evidence for indigenous salvage and reuse of the ship's cargo and resulting changes to local Coast Miwok cultural practices, as well as changes in regional interaction between California Indian groups. Read The Archeology of Sixteenth-Century Cross-Cultural Encounters in Point Reyes National Seashore to learn more about this research project.

Climate Change Threatens Coast Miwok Archaeological Resources Read the KQED 's Climate Watch report entitled " Rising Seas Threaten California's Coastal Past: Higher tides and increased erosion will wipe out archaeological sites ," filed by Molly Samuel on July 29, 2012. Listen to the radio version of this story from KQED's The California Report . Visit our Climate Change Threatens Cultural Resources page to learn more.

Perhaps no event in California's history has been as thoroughly debated as the landfall of Francis Drake's Golden Hind in 1579. His visit to a "convenient and fit harbourgh" has been narrowed by conjecture and evidence to at least three locations near Point Reyes. The evidence, the chaplain's diary, and shards of delicate porcelain—part of Drake's treasure—leads most scholars to the estuary and bay along the southern coast of Point Reyes peninsula which bear his name today.

Drake's quest for new lands and riches took him on many voyages across the Atlantic. During his first three trans-Atlantic voyages, he sailed with John Hawkins, his second cousin and the man who is considered to have been the first English slave-trader. In 1568, during the third expedition, Hawkins' fleet was attacked by Spanish warships for engaging in illegal trade in the Caribbean Sea, including trading enslaved people. Hawkins lost four of six ships, and he and Drake narrowly escaped death. This event was a catalyst for Drake's hatred of Spain and preceded the many battles he waged against the Spanish.

It was during his fourth trans-Atlantic voyage, in 1572, that Drake is said to have climbed a tree on the Isthmus of Panama and first glimpsed the Pacific. Captivated by this view, he swore to sail an English ship to those waters.

Drake made good on this oath when he sailed from Plymouth in 1577 with a fleet of five ships and headed west amidst storms and mutiny. He reached the Port of St. Julian on the Argentinean coast in mid-1578 and overwintered there before rounding South America. Ferdinand Magellan, the first explorer to circumnavigate the globe and whose global sailing record would be eclipsed by Drake, had similarly overwintered in the harbor in 1520.

Reaching the Pacific in September of 1578, Drake continued north, seeking the Northwest Passage and striking at ships and ports along the western coast of South America, a significant source of Spain's colonial wealth. His ship, the Golden Hind (which had originally been named the Pelican ), was soon bulging with gold and silver, chests of rare porcelains from China, spices, and silks. Drake continued sailing north, moving further and further from the familiar and charted waters of Panama and Mexico.

His northward search for the Northwest Passage is thought to have ended around 42 degrees north, near the current Oregon-California border, although some accounts have argued he may have reached what is now British Columbia. He then turned southward, the Golden Hind having sprung a leak that needed repair. By June 17, 1579, he had slipped southward to 38 degrees with the ailing ship, anchoring in the first calm waters he could find.

While Drake spent only six weeks in this harbor, repairing and preparing the Golden Hind for the long voyage west across the Pacific, healthy debate among history buffs as to the exact location of the harbor has lasted centuries. The log of the voyage, complete with Drake's own watercolors, was presented to Queen Elizabeth I and declared the Queen's secrets of the Realm. Drake and his crew were sworn to secrecy upon pain of death, lest the Spanish might learn of Drake's activities.

The diary of the ship's chaplain, Francis Fletcher, and interviews with Drake's cousin, John Drake, are the chief sources on what we now know about his visit to California. From their descriptions, it appears that the anchorage was the estuary that now carries Drakes name on the Point Reyes peninsula. Chaplain Fletcher noted the light colored cliffs near the estuary, which reminded the sailors of the white cliffs of Dover. He noted the "stinking fogges," which would be typical of summer weather on the Point Reyes peninsula.

The native inhabitants of the area greeted Drake's crew and, from examining the descriptions of these people, anthropologists have identified the Coast Miwok people of what in now Marin County as the people with whom Drake encountered. The Coast Miwok are thought to have believed these pale-skinned people from the sea were the spirits of their dead ancestors. They came often to visit the small encampment Drake had built while he completed his repairs, and it is thought that Drake gifted them with Chinese porcelains.

Once the repairs to the Golden Hind were completed, Drake claimed the land for England by setting up a stout post to which he nailed a metal plate engraved with his declaration and a sixpence and named the land Nova Albion. In 1936, a brass plate was found in Marin County at Limantour Beach. Historians believed that this plate, which carried a similar text as recorded from Chaplain Fletcher's diary, was final proof that Drake landed in Marin.

However, the plate did not withstand the tests of time or science. Modern testing confirmed that the plate could not have been manufactured with the technology available to sailors in the late 1500s and must have been created much later. It wasn't until 2002 that the origin of the fake plate was finally uncovered. Today, the plate can be found in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley as an object lesson in how hoaxes can be accepted as fact.

While the original metal plate has yet to be found, the delicate blue and white Chinese porcelains given to the Miwok has provided modern scholars with additional evidence of the site of Drake’s Nova Albion. Over the years, bits and pieces of porcelain have been recovered from the beaches of Drakes Bay and nearby Miwok archaeological sites. Close inspection by the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco in the 1990s found that some of the pieces were scratched and worn as if tossed along sandy beaches. Other bits had sharp, unworn edges and had mostly been recovered from archeological sites. The worn pieces are believed to be from the San Agustin , a Spanish galleon that wrecked in Drakes Bay in 1595, while the sharp-edged, unworn shards are thought to be from Drake's earlier gifts to the Miwoks in that foggy June of 1579.

Drake continued across the Pacific to Indonesia and then around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, completing the last leg "The Voyage of Circumnavigation" as he returned to England. The Golden Hind , bulging with treasures from the East Indies, arrived in Plymouth in September of 1580. In 1581, Queen Elizabeth I knighted Drake on board the Golden Hind in recognition of this journey. Sir Francis Drake continued a career of service to his queen, serving as Mayor of Plymouth and a Member of Parliament in the early 1580s before returning to the sea in 1585 to raid Spanish settlements in the Caribbean.

Through the spring of 1586, Drake raided and plundered many Spanish colonies in the Caribbean before heading north along the Atlantic coast of North America. In June of 1586, Drake arrived at Roanoke Island in what is now North Carolina. There he found a 115-man English military detachment that had arrived there in 1585 , at what is now Fort Raleigh National Historic Site . The military colony was on the brink of starvation and were anticipating an impending Algonquian attack. Drake had arrived just in time to rescue and transport them back to England.

He didn't get to stay home long before he was dispatched by Queen Elizabeth I to lead an attack on the Spanish fleet at Cadiz in 1587. The expedition was a military success, with over one hundred Spanish vessels destroyed or captured and delaying King Philip's plan to launch his armada to invade England by a year. When the Spanish Armada did launch in 1588, Drake helped lead the successful defense of England as vice admiral in command of the English fleet. This victory helped pave the way for England to become a global superpower and helped Drake secure a reputation as one of the finest sailors in history.

However, the defeat of the Spanish Armada was among the last of Drake's successful ventures. An expedition to attack Spain failed in 1589. He returned to the Caribbean in 1595, where he suffered many defeats, including the Battle of San Juan, which occurred on November 22. Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro), now part of San Juan National Historic Site , defended the harbor of San Juan and good fortune was on the side of the Spanish. A miscalculation by Drake, together with the bravery of the defenders of El Morro led to a totally unexpected defeat for the English.

Drake sailed on with his injured fleet to attack the port of Panamá in early January 1596, but was, once again, defeated. A couple weeks later, Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship of dysentery on January 28, 1596, and was buried at sea near Portobelo on the Caribbean coast of Panamá.

The ancient home of the Coast Miwok people, the dramatic landscape of the Point Reyes peninsula with its wave battered cliffs, remained undiscovered by European explorers until the late 1500's. Francis Drake probably first sighted and mapped the fog-shrouded headlands in 1579, at which time he is thought to have camped along the beach which today bears his name. Drake's quest for new lands and riches had taken him around South America to the Spanish trade routes of the Pacific Ocean. His ship, the Golden Hind , was full of gold and luxuries such as porcelain, taken from Spanish galleons traveling from the Philippines to Acapulco.

During the summer of 1579, Drake came ashore somewhere in California to careen his ship to repair the hull. The ship's chaplain complained in his log of "the stinking fogges". The nearly omnipresent fog at the Point Reyes headlands throughout the summer, along with the chaplain's descriptions of the inhabitants, the landscape and the wildlife, indicate that Drake's Estero may be the location of Drake's camp. Drake claimed the land for Queen Elizabeth before setting sail southwest to complete his circumnavigation of the globe before returning to England in 1580.

During the late 1500's, Spanish galleons were making numerous voyages between Mexico and the Philippines. To sail across the north Pacific, ships from Manila would sail north before catching the prevailing easterly winds, arriving along the North American coast north of Point Reyes. It is likely that numerous Spanish crews saw Point Reyes as they sailed south along the California coast toward Acapulco and other Mexican ports where Asian luxury goods such as porcelains and spices were then shipped to Europe. We do know that in 1595, Sebastian Cermeno anchored in the calm waters of what is now called Drakes Bay. As his crew was ashore seeking fresh water, their Manila galleon stuffed with silks and spices, was wrecked in a sudden storm. The crew managed to return home by rowing their long boat to Mexico.

The Spanish had been sending ships along the Pacific Coast and overland explorations throughout North America for many years. In an age of empire building, the Spanish expanded their domain up the California coast from Mexico. Point Reyes officially entered Spanish maps on January 6, 1603 when Sebastian Vizcaino sighted the headlands on the Roman Catholic feast day of the three wise men. Following Spanish tradition, the headlands were named after these religious figures: "la Punta de los Reyes" or the Point of the Kings. Spanish expeditions along the north coast continued. Later, sailors eventually found and entered Tomales Bay, where they would have seen the Miwok village at Segogolue or Toms Point. Amongst the kotças (sleeping shelters), the Spanish traded goods made of metal for finely woven Miwok baskets.

"Punta de los Reyes…. God help the hapless mariner who drifts upon her shores." San Francisco Chronicle, 1887

The dark, surging waters and treacherous crags of Point Reyes have commanded fear and respect from generations of sailors. These treacherous waters conceal the remains of ships whose crews were unwary, overconfident, or merely unfortunate. Standing on the bluffs and overlooks along the Point, it is worth taking a moment to reflect on these wrecks and what they mean to us. More than just a silent memory of past tragedies, shipwrecks are time capsules, moments of maritime history, captured by fate and waiting at the bottom of the sea to tell their stories.

Close to the vigorous port of San Francisco, Point Reyes has always been a major feature along the shipping routes. It thrusts ten miles out into the ocean. Tormented by chill, coursing currents, the sheer granite cliffs are thrashed by howling winds and concealed by impenetrable fogs—the worst the Pacific has to offer, according to a survey carried out by the United States Lighthouse Service in the 1800s. These hazards lie in wait for all ships that venture too close. Before the construction of the Point Reyes Lighthouse in 1870, over three-quarters of a million dollars in ships and cargoes were lost on the rocks. Even after the lighthouse was built, Life Saving Stations were established on Ten Mile Beach and at Chimney Rock to rescue the crews and passengers of foundering ships. To date, the Point has taken more than fifty ships and the lives of numerous sailors and passengers—ships that were never again seen from these shores and men and women who never returned to the embrace of their families and loved ones.

Before rail lines and highways connected California with the rest of the world, life here depended on oceanic shipping. Even the simplest merchandise arrived by ship. The vessels lost at Point Reyes exemplify the continuing history of shipping along the West Coast. The first ship sunk was a Spanish galleon, the San Agustin. Returning from the Philippines in 1595, a storm drove this ship onto the beaches and scattered its wreckage across Drakes Bay. Typically, the wrecks were not glamorous. They did not carry the gold and jewels that thrill treasure hunters, but the goods and supplies that fueled the growth of far-flung cities and outposts. Lumber ships and oil tankers, fishing scows and dairy schooners have been shattered on the rocks of Point Reyes. Ships continue to wreck on Point Reyes. Even with modern satellite technology, nearly every year some small vessel, a pleasure craft or fishing boat, is lost to these shores.

Shipwrecks are more than tragedies of lives and cargoes lost. They offer glimpses into the lives and histories of the ships and their sailors. Some wrecks carry with them the simple items that are rarely passed from one generation to the next. Tools, equipment, and personal items, originally of little intrinsic value, may be priceless as illustrations of the commonplace in their day. Wrecks can also provide final testimonials on ideas and techniques used to build ships that have forever disappeared from the seas.

Shipwrecks are a respected and protected part of Point Reyes National Seashore. They are archaeological sites that provide opportunities for scientific and historical research. More importantly, these wrecks serve as memorials to the work and sacrifice of the men and women who have made their lives on the sea.

The wreck of the steamer Samoa on January 28, 1913, provided the surfmen at Point Reyes with their greatest rescue, one that became known as among the most effective breeches buoy rescues in USLSS history. The Samoa was en route to San Francisco from Eureka with a load of lumber when she ran aground in a thick fog 600 yards south of the life-saving station. At 8 am, the crew of the station heard the Samoa 's fog signal, which sounded very close to shore. At 8:15 am, she blew a distress signal and Keeper Christopher Hunt headed for the beach, his crew following closely with the beach cart. By 8:30 am, they had located the Samoa , despite the dense fog, "with her bow in for the beach, in the breakers with the sea going over her." Despite working “under great difficulties" with "the mess of drifting lumber and heavy timbers that was thrown up by the rough sea," the USLSS crew was able to rescue all twenty-one men on board using the breeches buoy with "no one…lost or seriously injured."

The Richfield was one of the largest oil tankers when the Richfield Oil Co. purchased her as the flagship of their fleet in 1925. On May 8, 1930, the Richfield encountered heavy fog and a strong northwest wind off the Marin Coast while carrying 25,000 barrels of high-grade gasoline. Around noon, the Richfield struck a submerged reef about 500 yards off Chimney Rock and began to spill gasoline into the sea. Captain Henry Lee ordered his crew to the lifeboats, which were quickly located and towed away from the rapidly expanding gasoline slick by the USCG motor lifeboat. A tugboat later arrived and pumped the remaining 23,000 gallons of gasoline off the ship to lighters. Sightseerers crowded the bluff overlooking the wreck, hoping to see the tanker explode, until the USCG placed the area off-limits.

Watch a 42-second newsreel clip from November 23, 1931, about the wreck of the Munleon at Point Reyes.

Check out our Point Reyes Record: Then & Now: U.S. Life-Saving Service photo gallery to compare historic photos of shipwrecks with photos taken in 2019 from the same locations.

Point Reyes is the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and the second foggiest place on the North American continent. Weeks of fog, especially during the summer months, frequently reduce visibility to hundreds of feet. The Point Reyes Headlands, which jut 10 miles out to sea, pose a threat to each ship entering or leaving San Francisco Bay. The historic Point Reyes Lighthouse warned mariners of danger for more than a hundred years.

The Point Reyes Lighthouse, built in 1870, was retired from service in 1975 when the U.S. Coast Guard installed an automated light. They then transferred ownership of the lighthouse to the National Park Service, which has taken on the job of preserving this fine specimen of our heritage.

All lighthouses in the United States are now automated because it is cheaper to let electronics do the work. Many decommissioned lighthouses were transformed into restaurants, inns, or museums. The lighthouse at Point Reyes National Seashore is now a museum piece, where the era of the lightkeepers' lives, the craftsmanship and the beauty of the lighthouse are actively preserved.

Eadweard Muybridge. National Archives and Records Administration, PRNS HPRC Rec. No. 008690.

The Point Reyes Lighthouse lens and mechanism were constructed in France in 1867. The clockwork mechanism, glass prisms and housing for the lighthouse were shipped on a steamer around the tip of South America to San Francisco. The parts from France and the parts for the cast iron tower were transferred to a second ship, which then sailed to a landing on Drakes Bay. The parts were loaded onto ox-drawn carts and hauled three miles over the headlands to near the tip of Point Reyes, 600 feet above sea level.

Meanwhile, 300 feet below the top of the cliff, an area had been blasted with dynamite to clear a level spot for the lighthouse. To be effective, the lighthouse had to be situated below the characteristic high fog. It took six weeks to lower the materials from the top of the cliff to the lighthouse platform and construct the lighthouse. Finally, after many years of tedious political pressure, transport of materials and difficult construction, the Point Reyes Light first shone on December 1, 1870.

Lighthouses provide mariners some safety by warning them of rocky shores and reefs. They also help mariners navigate by indicating their location as ships travel along the coast. Mariners recognize lighthouses by their unique flash pattern. On days when it is too foggy to see the lighthouse, a fog signal is essential. Fog signals sound an identifying pattern to signal the location to the passing ships. Unfortunately, the combination of lighthouses and fog signals does not eliminate the tragedy of shipwrecks .

Because of this ongoing problem, a lifesaving station was established on the Great Beach north of the lighthouse in 1890. Men walked the beaches in four-hour shifts, watching for shipwrecks and the people who would need rescue from frigid waters and powerful currents. A new lifesaving station was opened in 1927 on Drakes Bay near Chimney Rock and was active until 1968. Today, it is a National Historic Landmark and can be viewed from the Chimney Rock Trail.

Point Reyes National Seashore Museum, HPRC Rec. No. 045510. Howard B. Underhill Collection.

The lens in the Point Reyes Lighthouse is a "first order" Fresnel (fray-nel) lens, the largest size of Fresnel lens. Augustin Jean Fresnel of France revolutionized optics theories with his new lens design in 1823.

Before Fresnel developed this lens, lighthouses used mirrors to reflect light out to sea. The most effective lighthouses could only be seen eight to twelve miles away. After his invention, the brightest lighthouses could be seen all the way to the horizon, about twenty-four miles.

The Fresnel lens intensifies the light by bending (or refracting) and magnifying the source light through glass prisms into concentrated beams. The Point Reyes lens is divided into twenty-four vertical panels, which direct the light into twenty-four individual beams, radiating out over the ocean surface like the spokes of a giant wagon wheel. A weight and gears similar to those in a grandfather clock rotate the 6000-pound lens at a constant speed of one revolution every two minutes. This rotation made the beams sweep around the horizon and created the Point Reyes Lighthouse's signature pattern of one flash every five seconds.

Keeping the lighthouse in working condition was a twenty-four-hour job. The light was lit only between sunset and sunrise, but there was work to do all day long. The head keeper and three assistants shared the load in four six-hour shifts.

Every evening, a half-hour before sunset, a keeper walked down the wooden stairs to light the oil lamp, the lighthouse's source of illumination. Once the lamp was lit, the keeper wound the clockwork mechanism, lifting a 170-pound weight, which was attached to the clockwork mechanism by a hemp rope, nine feet off the floor. The earth's gravity would then pull the weight, through a small trap door, to the ground level 17 feet below. The clockwork mechanism was built to provide resistance so that it would take two hours and twenty minutes for the weight to descend the 17 feet. And as the weight descended and the clockwork mechanism's gears spun, the Fresnel lens would turn so that the light appeared to flash every five seconds. In addition to winding the clockwork mechanism every two-hours and twenty minutes throughout the night, the keeper had to keep the lamp wicks trimmed so that the light would burn steadily and efficiently, thus the nickname "wickie."

Daytime duties for the keepers included cleaning the lens, polishing the brass, stoking the steam-powered fog signal and making necessary repairs. At the end of each shift, the keeper trudged back up the wooden staircase. Sometimes the winds were so strong that he had to crawl on his hands and knees to keep from being knocked down. The highest wind speed recorded at Point Reyes was 133 mph, and 60 mph winds are common.

The hard work, wind, fog and isolation at Point Reyes made this an undesirable post. Even so, one keeper stayed for about twenty-four years, a testament to his devotion and love of Point Reyes!

The historic Point Reyes Lighthouse served mariners for 105 years before it was replaced. It endured many hardships, including the April 18, 1906, earthquake, during which the Point Reyes Peninsula and the lighthouse moved north 18 feet in less than one minute! The only damage to the lighthouse was that the lens slipped off its tracks. The lighthouse keepers quickly effected repairs and by the evening of the eighteenth, the lighthouse was once again in working order. The earthquake occurred at 5:12 am and the lighthouse was scheduled to be shut down for regular daytime maintenance at 5:25 am. Although the earthquake caused much devastation and disruption elsewhere, the Point Reyes Lighthouse was essentially only off-line for thirteen minutes!

The National Park Service is now responsible for the maintenance of the lighthouse. Park rangers now clean, polish and grease it, just as lighthouse keepers did in days gone by. With this care, the light can be preserved for future generations—to teach visitors of maritime history and of the people who worked the light, day in and day out, rain or shine, for so many years.

Read an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1887 about the Point Reyes Lighthouse.

Download the NPS Historic Structures Report published in 1990 entitled The History and Architecture of the Point Reyes Light Station .

How many prayers went unanswered along this prominent point? How many lives were lost and how many tears of sorrow fell for those who drowned in a cold dangerous sea? If you were fated to wreck along the rocky headlands or to beach in the pounding surf of Point Reyes Beach (aka, the Great Beach and Ten-Mile Beach), your cries for help and mercy would often be lost among the unrelenting waves of the Pacific.

Before the establishment of Life Saving and Lifeboat Stations, the remains of vessels littered the beaches and the rocks along the United States coastline. Horrified spectators witnessed the drowning of passengers and crew, helpless to do anything. In the same waves that smashed hulls and took lives of the unsuspecting, some heard a call to action.

Though organized, volunteer lifesaving (similar to volunteer firefighting) in the U.S. began in the 1780s, it was not until 1878 that a coordinated government agency was established to aid distressed mariners. The United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS) provided hope for those whose fate was once sealed by pounding ocean waves and foreboding coastlines of the United States. The USLSS was a model agency and its surfmen would earn a place in the hearts of Americans for their feats of bravery.

In 1890, the United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS) established a station at Point Reyes with a keeper and a crew of seven surfmen on a lonely stretch of the Point Reyes Beach, which was notorious for its pounding surf and bad weather. The surfmen patrolled the beaches of Point Reyes with an ever-vigilant eye, looking for shipwrecks and their desperate crews. They walked the beaches day and night, with the fog chilling them to the bone and the wind blasting sand at the unprotected skin of their faces. The surfmen's positions were poorly paid, difficult, and full of danger.

When a wreck was found, the surfmen did what they did best, they saved lives. As a shipwrecked mariner, you could be assured that the surfmen's presence gave you a much better chance of survival. Equipped with a surf boat and breeches buoys, a keeper would determine the best way to aid those in distress. Using a surfboat with the eight surfmen rowing and the keeper steering, the crew of the lifesaving station would take the imperiled mariners back to shore.

But there were times when the boat could not safely reach a wreck. In those instances the breeches buoy and Lyle gun were used. Using a small cannon called a Lyle gun, a line would be shot to the wreck. The breeches buoy—which was a life preserver ring with an oversize pair of canvas legs—would then be sent to the wreck to remove crew and passengers one at a time.

In the early years of lifesaving at Point Reyes, the surfmen knew of danger. But it was not the isolation of the beach or the vast open ocean that they feared. It was the unrelenting, pounding surf that lay between. Strong surf could keep a rescue operation at bay for hours or capsize a surfboat, taking a man's life in a cold sea. In the first three years of operation, three surfman lost their lives while they honed their lifesaving skills in drills. These experiences resonated throughout the Life Saving Service in its motto "Ye have to go out but ye don't have to come in."

The Point Reyes Life-Saving Service Station's first keeper was William L. Loch, who faced a difficult two years at the station. Three of the first seven surfmen assigned to the station left immediately after arriving, finding the conditions at Point Reyes Beach too rough and dangerous. Later, one surfman charged that Loch had tried to kill one of the surfmen; fellow surfmen attested to the fact that "we found the treatment of Captain Loch unbearable."

On December 12, 1890, while the surfmen brought the station’s surfboat to shore after more than an hour's drill at sea, a "heavy breaker came in suddenly and turned her over with all hands, seriously injuring two men." Andrew Anderson and Fred Carstens had been caught under the boat and crushed; they were taken indoors and one of the crew was sent to get a doctor, but both men died an hour later.

On March 4, 1891, surfman John Korpala died after a long illness without receiving any quality medical attention. Korpala had signed up for duty in San Francisco two months before, and had hidden a two-year-old lung illness from Keeper Loch. Loch attempted to treat the illness using a number of home remedies, including whiskey punch, which may have quickened the surfman’s demise.

Anderson, Carstens, and Korpala were buried in an unmarked and unfenced plot in the dunes 500 feet from the station dwelling. According to the first surfman to resign from the Point Reyes USLSS station in 1891, Keeper Loch considered that "[the dead surfmen's] people would not assist and therefore he thought he would not do so himself."

On March 1, 1893, a tragedy similar to that of Anderson and Carsten occurred when, in completing a boat drill on a moderate ocean, an unexpected heavy breaker came in and overturned the surfboat. Surfman George Larson was struck by a gunwhale and killed instantly.

By the time of Larson's death, there was "much unfavorable comment" from visitors and "a very unpleasant impression" made on the crew by the unceremonious conditions under which Anderson, Carstens, and Korpala were buried. The surviving surfmen exhumed and gave the bodies to Captain Peter Henry Claussen, the tenant of the G Ranch, who took the remains to the Claussen family cemetery, where they, along with Larson, received a proper reburial.

In 1915, the United States Life-Saving Service was combined with the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to form the U.S. Coast Guard. This newly formed agency was now charged with aiding those in distress and interdicting smugglers. Very little changed in the first years under Coast Guard management, but, in 1927, operations moved from the Point Reyes Beach to the protected waters of Drakes Bay near Chimney Rock. At Chimney Rock, a new station was built as longer, heavier, motorized lifeboats replaced the old, human-powered surfboats.

The size and weight of these boats meant that they had to be launched using a pier and a marine railway that descended from the boathouse to the water. Chimney Rock and the calm protected waters was a much safer place from which to launch rescues. With the calmer waters and its proximity to the headlands, the new faster boats had a greater command of the Point Reyes Peninsula.

The move to Chimney Rock in 1927 relieved many who faced the dangers of the Great Beach surf, but lives risked and lost in the pursuit of saving others were not a thing of the past. After only two months at the new site, the men of the station responded to their first rescue saving the crew from a burning vessel. As the years passed and the Coast Guardsmen left their marks in the Station's logbooks, hints of their bravery can often found. Lifesaving crews risked their lives in rough seas, near the rocky headlands, and among towering waves saving the lives of many. In the process they lost two of their own.

On the night before Thanksgiving in 1960, USCG crewmen Anthony Holmes and Hugh McClements left in Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat #36542 from Chimney Rock for a routine assist of a fishing boat near Bodega Bay. After securing the civilian vessel in her port, the crewmen radioed the lifeboat station that they would be returning in less than an hour. That was the last that was heard from the crew. When they did not return on schedule, the rest of the crew initiated a search.

The lifeboat was found the next morning, having run aground on the Great Beach with the motor still running. Five days later the body of Holmes was found further south on the beach. On December 16, 1960, the body of McClements was found. What happened to the crew? The answer was lost with them, leaving a mystery in its place.

Whatever the answer, there is no question of the surfman's bravery. Even with all these tragedies, the lives and vessel saved far outnumbered those lost by the duty bound. In the the well over a century of lifesaving at Point Reyes, countless vessels, their crews and passengers, and millions of dollars worth of ships and cargo have beensaved.

Eventually modern technologies eclipsed the need for the Lifeboat Station at Point Reyes. The quick response of larger, faster Coast Guard Cutters and helicopters have meant the need for fewer lifesaving sites and fewer staff. On December 16, 1968, the Point Reyes Lifeboat Station was decommissioned and transferred to the National Park Service in 1969. Much of this history and these lives lived in service to others are now gone. All that remains in its place is a building. Silent and decommissioned, it embodies all the perils endured, and all the lives saved that would have otherwise be lost forever. The Historic Lifeboat Station at Chimney Rock stands as a monument to their stories of service and sacrifice.

These stations and those who staffed them fulfilled their roles in the development of coastal cities and industries. Today, the Historic Lifeboat Station at Point Reyes National Seashore is used as an educational facility for non-profit groups learning about the resources of the natural and cultural resources of Point Reyes. The building is visible from the Chimney Rock Trail and is sometimes open to the public on weekends and holidays from January to mid-March. For more information, please call the National Seashore at 415-464-5100.

Check out our Chimney Rock page for more information about visiting this beautiful location.

And check out our Point Reyes Record: Then & Now: U.S. Life-Saving Service photo gallery to compare historic photos with photos taken in 2019 from the same locations.

And if you want to take a deeper dive into the history of the Point Reyes Lifeboat Station, download the 2006 Cultural Landscape Inventory .

When you cross Inverness Ridge toward the Point Reyes headlands, you leave the pine/fir forest behind and enter the stark beauty of the coastal grasslands , dotted with cattle and scattered ranches.

This open, working landscape is known as the Pastoral Zone. At first glance, open pastures and rolling fencelines are punctuated by windbreaks, stockponds, and feedlots arrayed around a ranch core. There, the mix of redwood homes and barns from the 1800s with aluminum and steel utility buildings from the 1900s becomes evident, suggesting the evolution of the dairy industry. In fact, the National Seashore visitor has happened upon one of the earliest and largest examples of industrial-scale dairying in the state of California.

The 1849 California Gold Rush brought an influx of capitalists, merchants, professional practitioners, laborers, and agriculturists, among others seeking alternative wealth along the shores of San Francisco Bay. Some of those who vainly sought mineral gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills came further west, finding gold of another kind at Point Reyes. With their dairying skills honed in their previous homes, they could envision production of golden wheels of cheese and casks of butter to provision the growing population of nearby San Francisco. The treeless coastal plain beckoned with opportunity.

The early American settlers of the 1850s were impressed with the cool, moist climate of Point Reyes, providing near-ideal conditions for raising dairy cows. Abundant grass and forbs, a long growing season, and sufficient fresh water supplies promised productivity well in excess of domestic need. Unknown to the early ranchers, the expansive coastal prairie was most likely the byproduct of burning, weeding, pruning, and harvesting for at least two millennia by Coast Miwok and their antecedents.

The Franciscan missionaries set the stage for the explosion of dairy in west Marin with the introduction of feral cattle in 1817. They established the San Rafael Asistencia, near San Francisco Bay, as an annex to Mission Dolores in San Francisco, serving as a recuperative center for ailing Coast Miwok and Ohlone natives. Secularization of the missions following Mexican independence from Spain led to land grant subdivision and the expansion of cattle ranching on the peninsula.

The advancing front of Americano ranchers brought to light poor record keeping and the behavior of several Mexicano land grantees coveting and utilizing a neighbor's adjacent parcel. As land was sold to the new immigrants, the title to the land usually became ensnared in litigation.

Oscar Lovell Shafter and James McMillan Shafter separately came to California from Vermont in the mid-1850s. Within a couple years, they were both partners in the San Francisco law firm Shafter, Shafter, Park, and Heydenfeldt. One of the firm's first cases was a land dispute regarding who had title to various properties on the Point Reyes peninsula and in Olema Valley. During a five-year period ending in 1857, the disputes led to the firm's ownership of over 50,000 acres on Point Reyes—almost all the land on peninsula—encompassing the coastal plain and most of Inverness Ridge. The Shafter brothers shortly thereafter bought out Park's and Heydenfeldt's interest in the Point Reyes with the intent of creating their own dairy district.

As a region, Point Reyes played an instrumental part in the development of the dairy industry in California. Before 1857, dairy products for consumption in San Francisco were shipped from the East Coast or produced locally by very small dairy operations of questionable quality. Unlike the small dairy operations pre-existing on the peninsula, these Vermont-native lawyer/businessmen saw the opportunity to market large quantities of superior quality butter and some cheese under a Point Reyes brand to San Francisco. The remote location of Point Reyes would be overcome with the expeditious delivery of finished products and livestock to the foot of Market Street by way of small schooners, and eventually by rail and ferry. Vital dairy production equipment and methods were developed at Point Reyes dairies that would be adopted nationwide. Point Reyes dairies were among the first large-scale and high-quality dairies in the state, and at one time the Shafters' butter district was considered to be the largest in the world. Point Reyes dairies produced what was widely considered to be the highest quality butter in the state for the last half of the 1800s. Marin County, dominated by the Shafter family's Point Reyes dairies, led the state's counties in dairy production in volume into the 1890s.

Construction of the Shafters' first ranch began in 1857, when the house at Home Ranch near the geographic center of the peninsula was built. During the next two or three years, Home Ranch developed as an experimental ranch—a prototype of sorts for the mass-produced ranches to come. Shortly thereafter, the Shafters began leasing different sections of the peninsula to the occupants of existing dairy ranches. The singular exception was the sale of Tomales Point to an old friend from Vermont, Solomon Pierce. The Pierce family built a small town to support their isolated twin dairy ranches with the commanding views of the Pacific and Tomales Bay. In time, the Pierce Ranches out-competed the Shafter dairy collective in production and quality of finished product.

In 1865, Charles Webb Howard (Oscar's son-in-law and also from Vermont) became a full partner of the Shafters' project, moved to Point Reyes, and managed the creation of the large dairy district. In 1869 and 1870, the three partners divided up the peninsula into six parcels, leaving each to own and manage a collection of coastal plain and ridgeline ranches. Some historians refer to this event as the "Partition of 1869–70."

In all, the Shafters and Howard dairy ranches numbered 31. Oscar Shafter and Howard utilized the letters of the alphabet to name their individual ranches. "A" Ranch was located closest to the headlands; "Z" Ranch was located at the summit of Mt. Wittenberg, while a few letters were left unused. James Shafter bequeathed more poetic names like Drakes Head, Muddy Hollow, Oporto, and Sunnyside. (Download the "Historic Alphabet Designations of Point Reyes Ranches, 1860–present" map. - 275 KB PDF)

Oscar Shafter's portions took up the northernmost and southernmost parcels on the peninsula, including ranches H through N in the north section of 11,135 acres and the Lake and South End Ranches near Bolinas. The 6,712-acre southern section contained large fir forests and brushy areas, leaving only two locations on the coast suitable for dairying.

James Shafter took two parcels central to the peninsula: a 13,660-acre parcel overlooking Limantour Bay and including the headquarters, or Home Ranch, with its surrounding dairies O through T (usually referred to by names such as New Albion or Muddy Hollow Ranches), and a 5,257-acre wooded parcel south of Bear Valley containing Wildcat and Glen Ranches near the coast and extending eastward to the village of Olema.

Perhaps Charles Webb Howard ended up owning the best portion of the peninsula: the rich pastures of Point Reyes itself—9,647 acres containing ranches A through G—and the spectacular 7,739-acre Bear Valley Ranch stretching from Drakes Bay to Olema, containing U, W, Y, and Z Ranches. Howard took the lead in improving his section, hiring a Swedish immigrant carpenter/dairyman, Hinrik Claussen, to oversee the completion of his dairies. In addition, Howard took charge of Oscar Shafter's dairy ranches under an agreement with his ill father-in-law.

The Shafters and Howard employed family members, local residents, or recruited European dairymen as superintendents to construct new dairies, refurbish existing ranches, recruit immigrant ranch hands, and aid selection of the tenant ranchers. The tenant ranches were rented by Irish, Swedish, Italian-speaking Swiss, and Azore Islands-Portuguese families. Surviving Coast Miwok families displaced by the Spanish missions also found work on the dairies situated above their Tomales Bay homes. The Shafters envisioned creating a more civil society for the Bay Area in the 1800s, refining bachelor ranch hands and educating ranch family children. Chinese, Canadian, Filipino, Mexican, and German immigrants all found their chance to get started in America through dairying at Point Reyes.

The ultimate success of the Shafter/Howard dairy enterprise rested on their ability to market and negotiate contracts with high-end hoteliers and fine food purveyors. The Point Reyes brand of butter conveyed a high level of quality, attested in articles in local contemporary newspapers. "The grass growing in the fields on Monday is butter on the city tables the following Sunday," as the 1880 History of Marin County reported. The brand with letters "PR" inside a star was stamped into cheesecloth-wrapped rolls or casks of butter. This familiar symbol was actually forged by other dairy farmers of the time.

Record yields of butter and cheese came from the dairy farms at Point Reyes throughout the late 1800s. Herds of Devons, Jerseys, Guernseys, and later on Holsteins, numbering from 100 to 250 cows per ranch, catapulted the Point Reyes enterprise as perhaps the largest operation in the early years of the state. In 1867, Marin County produced 932,429 pounds of butter, the largest yield of butter in California. These huge amounts of butter were produced in an era when the finest restaurants served every good steak with a melting slab of butter on top.

The distance to San Francisco and east Marin communities precluded the ability to ship milk for domestic consumption. In the absence of refrigeration, the raw milk was briefly useable by the ranch families and employees. Collected by milkers either outdoors or inside large milking barns, raw milk sat in pans inside dairy houses to allow for cream separation. The surplus skim milk was dumped into a drain leading to an open trench, finding its way to penned, thirsty hogs. It was not unusual to see swine and casks of butter shipped off together on the decks of schooners headed for the city.

The estates of the three Shafter/Howard families declined shortly after 1900. Following the 1906 earthquake, several dairies located on Inverness Ridge shuttered their doors. Although building damage contributed to their demise, these ranches failed due to the absence of Coast Miwok burning and the rapid expansion of native coyotebrush and poison oak thickets, leading to dramatic reductions in grazeable pastures for cows. By 1933, all ridgeline dairies were gone.

The demand for Shafter/Howard ranch produce waned, particularly as transportation throughout the Bay Area improved. Other regional dairies were improving their quality, quantity, and distribution of produce, while the cumulative impacts of overgrazing on Point Reyes had caused a significant decline in pasture quality. The accumulation of massive debt, the 1929 stock market crash, and the close of the Depression ultimately brought an end to the three estates, and the "butter rancho." Land speculators picked up the pieces, and in most instances resold the ranches to the contemporary tenants.

Members of the Shafter family owned major portions of Point Reyes for 82 years, from 1857 to 1939.

The first of the Point Reyes property to leave the Shafter family included the estate of Charles Webb Howard, administered until her death by his widow, Emma Shafter Howard. After her death in 1916, the couple's four children disagreed on how to share the estate. After months of hearings in San Rafael, the land was partitioned, then each part was sold separately to John G. Rapp of San Francisco in 1919.

On his death in 1892, James McMillan Shafter left a shocking amount of debt for his heirs to clear. Shafter's daughter Julia Shafter Hamilton served as administrator of the estate and spent the rest of her life settling the debts in a fair and proud manner. The burden of the ranches finally overtook Mrs. Hamilton in the days following the stock market crash in 1929 when, after defaulting on a large bank loan, she sold the Point Reyes tract to real estate specialist Leland S. Murphy.

The last lands to leave the Shafter family were those of Oscar L. Shafter's estate, Ranches H through N, and the South End and Lake Ranches near Bolinas. After Shafter' s death in 1873 these lands had been administered by the O. L. Shafter Estate Company, under the control of Charles Webb Howard until his death after the turn of the century. The holding company decided to sell in 1939, first selling the I Ranch to Jim McClure and the J Ranch to Jim Kehoe in April of that year. In August, real estate promoter Leonard David of San Francisco bought the rest of the ranches for $300,000 and immediately resold them to the tenants and others at great profit.

The Shafter/Howard enterprise "corresponded to the feudal system of England," according to the San Rafael Independent in 1939. The new owners had chafed at the terms of their leases and the increasing inability of their landlords to make capital improvements to their dairy infrastructure. The timing of the demise of the Shafter family estates coincided with Federal and state regulation of milk production for consumer health. Butter production shifted from the individual ranches to cooperative creameries located on the "F" Ranch and in the railroad town of Point Reyes Station. The most important improvements, in the form of more profitable Grade A dairy operations, began to appear in 1935, though most were constructed after the conclusion of World War II. Ranch homes and bunkhouses built in the 1870s were found to be too small and difficult to maintain, and began to be replaced with stucco-covered, single story residences.

During the Great Depression, ranchers struggled to make ends meet. It was not uncommon for ranchers to augment their incomes with expanded livestock production, such as beef cattle, chickens, and eggs. Several ranches invited Japanese immigrants to raise peas, and Italian immigrants to cultivate artichokes on more remote parcels. These ventures were usually successful. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the subsequent internment of the Japanese-Americans and relocation of Italian-Americans, the fields went fallow for lack of labor and mounting soil erosion problems. During Prohibition, whiskey and rum smuggling at Home Ranch on Limantour Estero replaced dairy operations as their sole source of income.

Others changes were coming. The Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, expediting movement of produce from the North Bay region into San Francisco. During World War II, the ranches became connected to the regional electric power grid, replacing gas-powered generators to run milking and refrigeration equipment. The cooperative creameries closed, allowing for ranchers to sell raw milk as commodity to regional creameries. After the war, some dairies ceased operation, converting to far less labor-intensive beef cattle operations. Probably most important, fresh war veterans who had transited through San Francisco enroute to the Pacific theatre decided to relocate their families to the Bay Area, swelling the tide of suburbanization into Marin County.

Marin County had embraced a growth plan in the 1950s and 60s that would greatly benefit real estate developers and speculators, with assistance from the state department of transportation. With the influx of new residents, many of them affluent, property taxes for the county as a whole dramatically increased. At the same time, dairy operators nationally saw prices for the products drop considerably. Dairies regionally had been closing or consolidating for sometime, but the combination of economics, competition, labor costs, taxes, environmental regulation, and land values accelerated the pace. Point Reyes dairies feared the loss of the quality of life as much as declining profitability. If more dairies closed their doors, the fear rose that the supporting dairy industry infrastructure might collapse. Most important, the ranchers valued the pastoral landscape that their parents and grandparents had set roots in, often back to the 1800s.

In order to secure their place at Point Reyes, the dairy and cattle ranchers formed an uneasy alliance with the Sierra Club in hopes of preserving their ranches and west Marin open space. The National Park Service (NPS) had actively sought to establish a national park on the California coast, and Point Reyes in particular, as early as 1936. Washington was approached to help solve the pressing needs of many local and national constituencies. The compromise hammered out by Congress and signed by President Kennedy in 1962 explicitly provided for the retention of the ranches in a designated pastoral zone, with ranchers signing 25–30 year reservations of use and occupancy leases, and special use permits for cattle grazing. Over the ensuing ten years, the NPS acquired the 17 remaining operating ranches and the property of the abandoned ranches.

As of 2023, five historic Shafter/Howard era dairies are operating in the park. An additional nine occupied historic ranches and former ranch sites run beef cattle. The Pierce Ranch on Tomales Point ceased operations in 1973. Three years later, Congress authorized creation of the wilderness area incorporating that ranch as habitat for the reintroduction of tule elk . Beginning in 1980, NPS invested in the rehabilitation of the ranch core, citing it as the best example of an 1800s west Marin dairy ranch. Pierce Ranch was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, and was subsequently opened to the public as an interpretive site.

The former "W" or Bear Valley Ranch was early on designated as the new National Seashore’s headquarters. Visitors to the Bear Valley Visitor Center pass through the former ranch core, adaptively reused for park administration and support services. The visitor center itself, which opened was constructed and opened in 1983, is a relatively new addition, designed to echo the surrounding agricultural landscape and local history. In 2018, 17 ranches on Point Reyes were included on the National Register as a historic landscape district.

Imagine what this windswept, fog-enshrouded landscape may have looked like almost 200 years ago, before the first cattle made their way here. Imagine Coast Miwok coexisting with tule elk, grizzly bear, mountain lion, whales, dolphins, countless birds , and their innumerable prey species. Then imagine the early beginnings of these formerly remote ranches as you drive by enroute to the lighthouse or the tule elk reserve . Perhaps you can imagine in 1916, Pierce Ranch school teacher Helen Smith walking into the creamery to scoop a small cup of cream from the cooling pans to pour over her breakfast pancakes. Her experience is a far cry from our contemporary neatly wrapped packages of butter and milk purchased at the local supermarket. If, on your way home from Point Reyes, you should stop to treat yourself with ice cream, don’t be surprised if several days ago it started as grass and a cow you just passed.

For more information, refer to Ranching on the Point Reyes Peninsula: A History of the Dairy and Beef Ranches within Point Reyes National Seashore, 1834–1992. By D. S. (Dewey) Livingston, National Park Service, 1993, revised 1994. It is also available at reference desks of local libraries, museums, and university libraries. Tours of selected West Marin ranches are offered periodically by Marin Agricultural Land Trust .

Check out our Point Reyes Record: Then & Now: Point Reyes Ranches photo gallery to compare historic photos with photos taken in 2019 from the same locations.

The early 1900s was an exciting time of innovations in communications. Wireless transmission and ship to shore communication were rapidly growing enterprises. In 1901, Gugliemo Marconi, an Italian inventor and electrical engineer, heard the first tap of his wireless telegraph system—the letter "S" in Morse code across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1912, the wreck of RMS Titanic highlighted how wireless telegraph systems could safeguard lives and property at sea. Wireless operators could tap out messages at about fifteen words per minute, calling other ships and shore stations for aid more quickly than earlier technology allowed.

In 1914, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (aka American Marconi) built and operated an overseas wireless telegraphy transmitting station in Bolinas and a receiving station on Tomales Bay in Marshall to better communicate across the Pacific. The two stations were once in the forefront of communication technology and formed the foundation for the one of the most successful and powerful ship-to-shore wireless stations on the Pacific Rim. From the Point Reyes area, operators tapped out Morse code messages which were heard across the Pacific Ocean.

The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) acquired American Marconi in 1920 and, by 1929, was seeking to purchase the G ranch on the Point Reyes peninsula because of its proximity to the ocean for a third station to receive signals transmitted from across the north Pacific. After acquiring the property, RCA built an Art Deco-style receiving station between 1929 and 1931, which supplanted the Marshall station. Saplings of Monterey cypress, one of the few tree species adaptable to wind and ocean weather conditions, were planted lining the station’s access road.

During World War II, RCA Ranch (aka G Ranch) was used by military and Coast Guard personnel who were stationed on the ranch to patrol nearby beaches.

At some time during the past few decades, an urban legend began circulating among many in West Marin that the RCA facility on the Point Reyes peninsula was the first radio station on the mainland USA to receive news of the attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. However, there are no records from the station that it received direct word from Hawai'i on that day, although the stations in the Point Reyes area did help relay the news to ships across the north Pacific.

World War II spurred even more developments in communications, such as LORAN (long range aid to navigation) and GPS (global positioning systems), which ultimately replaced the need for Morse code operators and ocean-front technical stations. The transmitting and receiving stations at Point Reyes were decommissioned in 1999.

The receiving station on the Point Reyes Peninsula has used the KPH call sign since 1946. The original PH call sign, from which KPH was derived, was first used when a radio station was established in the Palace Hotel (PH) in San Francisco.

The facilities date from 1914, the earliest days of wireless communication, and research indicates that these sites—together with the Marshall Marconi receiving station (now a California State Park conference center)—comprise what appears to be the last intact Marconi-era coast station in North America. Studies are underway to ultimately list both National Seashore sites and the Marshall facility as a multiple property National Historic Landmark.

In 2000, the park archivist began the task of organizing over 200 linear feet of operations records inherited from MCI (which acquired the RCA Global Communications division in the 1980s) and coordinated curatorial work related to preserving the historic radio equipment. Volunteers from the Maritime Radio Historical Society (MRHS) logged have logged thousands of hours organizing and restoring artifacts and equipment. MRHS volunteers also put station KPH back on the air on July 12, 2000, for the first of many annual July 12 commemorations of the last commercial transmission of Morse Code in the U.S.

Volunteers from the Maritime Radio Historical Society staff the Historic KPH Receiving Station on most Saturdays from noon to 5 pm and are happy to give visitors who drop by brief or extended tours to match visitors' time and interest. Follow Sir Francis Drake Boulevard west towards the Lighthouse until you see the sign for the North District Operations Center. Turn right and pass through the "tree tunnel" to get to the Receiving Station. Park in the lot on the left before the turn-around. Please visit our Historic KPH Maritime Radio Receiving Station and Cypress Tree Tunnel page for more information.

Night of Nights is an annual event held on the 12th of July by the MRHS to commemorate the history of maritime radio and the closing of commercial Morse operations in the USA. These on-the-air events are intended to honor the men and women who followed the radiotelegraph trade on ships and at coast stations around the world and made it one of honor and skill.

KPH, the ex-RCA coast station located within Point Reyes National Seashore, returns to the air for commemorative broadcasts on July 12 each year at 5:01 pm PDT (13 July at 0001 GMT). At 5 pm on July 12, 1999, radio operators thought they had broadcast the last commercial Morse transmission in the U.S. Transmissions usually continue until at least midnight PDT (0700GMT).

Members of the public are invited to visit the receiving station for this event. The station is usually open to visitors beginning at 3 pm PDT. See our Night of Nights page or the MRHS site for more details about this event.

Human history at Point Reyes extends back about 5000 years. The Coast Miwok Indians were the inhabitants of what we now call Marin and southern Sonoma Counties when European explorers first arrived at Point Reyes in the late 1500's, the first of whom was Francis Drake . By 1850, dairy ranchers had arrived on the scene, lured by the near-ideal conditions for raising cattle. As maritime commerce increased in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1800's, a lighthouse and lifesaving station were constructed at Point Reyes to, respectively, alert ships' crews of the trecherous point and to save the passengers of those ships that didn't safely navigate past the point. In the early 1900's, Guglielmo Marconi sited and commissioned the building of wireless telegraphy transmitting stations in the area which formed the foundation for the most successful and powerful ship to shore and land station on the Pacific Rim. Point Reyes National Seashore preserves historic sites so that modern-day visitors may hear the stories of and form connections to the people who have previously lived at or visited Point Reyes.

Visitors to Point Reyes are often curious about how their favorite beaches, trails, or places got their names. If you are one of those visitors—or even if you don't get the opportunity to visit but you are interested in learning more about the park's history—this page was created for you.

From time immemorial, the Coast Miwok have lived on the lands that now comprise Marin County and southern Sonoma County, including the Point Reyes Peninsula, which the Coast Miwok called Tamál-Húye (Coast Point). Some of the names one currently finds on maps are derived from Coast Miwok words (such as Olema and Tomales), but the names the Coast Miwok used for most sites within the Point Reyes area have been replaced by words and names from European languages.

The National Park Service recognizes that some of the individuals after whom some of these locations are named might not be honored today by having a bay, a beach, a road, etc., named after them. Please keep in mind that the purpose of this page is simply to provide—for those who may be curious—the etymology of the current place names one finds in the Point Reyes area and to provide, when known, a bit of history about the people and places listed.

The names of Oscar Lovell Shafter, James McMillan Shafter, and Charles Webb Howard, while not included in any of the names on the park's official map (and hence not found in the list of place names below), are, in essence, often the names behind the names. Many of the sites at Point Reyes and their history tend to lead back to or involve the Shafter brothers and Howard. Their story is told, in part, on our Ranching History at Point Reyes page.

The names below are listed alphabetically. After the name is a brief explanation of the name's origin. Clicking on a name will expand the accordion to reveal more details and history.

California Digital Newspaper Collection . The Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research at the University of California, Riverside .

Early California Population Project. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Available at https://huntington.org/early-california-population-project (accessed 19 February 2023).

Livingston, D.S. 1993. Ranching on the Point Reyes Peninsula - A History of the Dairy and Beef Ranches within Point Reyes National Seashore, 1834-1992 . Point Reyes National Seashore. Marin County, California, USA. Available at https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2202921 (accessed 19 February 2023).

Livingston, D.S. 1995. A Good Life: Dairy Farming in the Olema Valley - A History of the Dairy and Beef Ranches of the Olema Valley and Lagunitas Canyon . Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore. Marin County, California, USA. Available at https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2175701 (accessed 19 February 2023).

The Point Reyes peninsula is remarkably covered with numerous layers of human activity that have left sometimes overt, other times subtle changes on the landscape. Those changes, imposed upon a rugged coastal environment, were filtered through the lens of cultural values, traditions, lifeways, economies, and technologies of people who emigrated from small and great distances over a period of several millennia though current time.

The National Seashore has identified twelve historic cultural landscapes within its boundaries and the north district of Golden Gate National Recreation Area administered by Point Reyes. Over time, each is being documented, evaluated and, where necessary, rehabilitated, following guidelines of the National Register of Historic Places.

The dairy and cattle ranches on Point Reyes peninsula represent the single largest cultural landscape. The smallest is located at nineteenth century lime kilns located in the Olema Valley. Landscapes can range in scale from historic sites to substantial districts. They may express a high level of design, as seen in the two former RCA / Marconi Wireless Stations on Point Reyes and Bolinas. Conversely, there are vernacular, or homespun landscapes developed out of need or desire over time, rather than arising from measured designs. The ranches along Lagunitas Creek and the Olema Valley fall in this category. In the absence of archived documents of written histories, ethnographic landscapes are dependent on oral histories and material artifacts to piece together an understanding a cultural groups heritage. Examples at Point Reyes include the inhabitation and resource collection and processing sites for the Coast Miwok in historic and prehistoric time, and the I.D.E.S. Hall of the Portuguese ranching community that once stood on “N” Ranch.

Point Reyes' historic structures, from farm houses, barns, and creameries to lighthouses and radio stations, represent the ranching and maritime culture of the central California coast.

The Seashore is responsible for preserving nearly 300 historic structures, of which 60 are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. To maintain these buildings, the Seashore created a historic preservation crew led by an exhibit specialist in 1999. During the next two years, the crew completed over 30 projects throughout the park and constructed a new carpentry shop at the historic RCA Point Reyes Receiving Station.

Preservation work in 2001 included repairs at the Spaletta Dairy (historic C Ranch), Pierce Ranch, and the Giacomini Ranch in Olema Valley. At the Wilkins Ranch, in addition to work completed by the crew and Seashore contractors, the park hosted the University of Oregon's Historic Preservation Field School which provided training in preservation philosophy and craft to professionals, students and others interested in historic preservation. 2001 also saw contractors begin a rehabilitation of the Murphy (Home) Ranch main house, and the completion of design for a major rehabilitation project at the Lighthouse.

Within the lands of Point Reyes are innumerable archeological sites which contain clues to the prehistory and history of human use of this place. Coast Miwok heritage sites containing the vestiges of thousands of years of indigenous life on Point Reyes are valued for their cultural, historic, and scientific information. They are major resources which the park is committed to identifying, preserving, and interpreting with the cooperation and stewardship of the descendants of this land's first inhabitants. Historic archeological sites include one of the key reputed sites of the Pacific Coast landing of Sir Francis Drake in 1579, as well as the Manila Galleon wreck of Sebastian Cermeno in 1595 . Remains of Mexican and American period ranches , homesteads, industries, and recreational uses also abound.

These sites are fragile and the information they contain is a part of the historic fabric of Point Reyes' history. Please let them and their contents be.

The tidal and submerged lands within the Point Reyes National Seashore, Golden Gate National Recreation Area , and the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary contain approximately 151 shipwrecks. Of these, research indicates 41 lie solely within the jurisdiction of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, 78 lie solely within the jurisdiction of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and 32 lie solely within the jurisdiction of Point Reyes National Seashore. Many of these shipwrecks are individually significant and potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places; as a study collection, the group of shipwrecks is significant in documenting and assessing the progression of maritime development and activity associated with the port of San Francisco and its surrounding subports.

Submerged Cultural Resources Assessment: Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Point Reyes National Seashore. By James P. Delgado and Stephen A Haller. 1989. This report is the first assessment-level publication in a series that documents the submerged cultural resources present within the boundaries of National Park Service areas, National Marine Sanctuaries, and other marine-protected areas. It was drafted in 1986 under a memorandum of understanding between the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Submerged Cultural Resources Inventory: Portions of Point Reyes National Seashore and Point Reyes-Farallon Islands National Marine Sanctuary, 1983. By Toni Carrell with contributions by Larry Murphy. 1984. This study of the submerged cultural resources of portions of Point Reyes National Seashore and Point Reyes-Farallon Islands National Marine Sanctuary was conducted to generate information that would be useful in submerged cultural resources site protection, visitor safety and interpretation, in meting Federal compliance requirements, in contributing to the story of the park and the maritime history of the Pacific coast, and in answering questions of general archeological and historical importance.

Submerged Cultural Resources Survey: Portions of Point Reyes National Seashore and Point Reyes-Farallon Islands National Marine Sanctuary - Phase I - Reconnaissance Sessions 1 and 2, 1982. Edited by Larry Murphy. 1984. This volume reports the results of a shipwreck survey made possible through the cooperative efforts of the National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The survey was conducted on submerged lands within the jurisdiction of both agencies and was designed and executed to provide baseline information on potentially significant historical shipwrecks sites. It is intended as an aid for managers in making decisions regarding the monitoring, protection and interpretation of submerged resources in these areas.

Read KQED 's Climate Watch report entitled " Rising Seas Threaten California's Coastal Past: Higher tides and increased erosion will wipe out archeological sites ," filed by Molly Samuel on July 29, 2012. Listen to the radio version of this story from KQED's The California Report . Visit our Climate Change Threatens Cultural Resources page to learn more.

Human history at Point Reyes extends back about 5000 years. The Coast Miwok Indians were the inhabitants of what we now call Marin and southern Sonoma Counties when European explorers first arrived at Point Reyes in the late 1500s. By 1850, dairy ranchers had arrived on the scene, lured by the near-ideal conditions for raising cattle. As maritime commerce increased in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1800s, a lighthouse and lifesaving station were constructed at Point Reyes to, respectively, alert ships' crews of the trecherous point and to save the passengers of those ships that didn't safely navigate past the point. In the early 1900s, Guglielmo Marconi sited and commissioned the building of wireless telegraphy transmitting stations in the area which formed the foundation for the most successful and powerful ship to shore and land station on the Pacific Rim. Point Reyes National Seashore preserves historic sites so that modern-day visitors may hear the stories of and form connections to the people who have previously lived at or visited Point Reyes.

The Point Reyes National Seashore museum collection currently holds over forty interviews compiled by the park historian between 1985–1994. The recordings preserve the first-hand knowledge, memories, and ideas of people involved in generations of dairy and cattle ranching, oyster farming, and fishing in the area. Other interviewees speak of Coast Miwok culture, the search for Sir Francis Drake's landing site, service at the Coast Guard station at Point Reyes, and Morse code radio operations at the historic Marconi/RCA radio stations.

A recent survey conducted by the Seashore yielded an expanded list of oral history programs and collections in Marin relevant to the history of the land and the development of the park. You can find more information by clicking on the names of the institutions listed below.

The museum continues to develop its oral history collection and program scope. If you or someone you know has a story to share about living in the area that is now Point Reyes National Seashore, please contact us to set up an interview. For further information about the oral history collection or to make an appointment, contact the Museum Curator (position currently vacant as of April 2021) email -->.

January 21, 1888 John C. Ryan took charge of this station as Principal Keeper. Ed Chamberlin left station. James Tookey, First Assistant; George Hussey, Second Assistant; James Nightwire 3rd Assistant.

"In taking charge of this station I must say, that it is broken, filthy, and almost a total wreck from end to end of it. In the worst condition in every particular of any station I ever saw, in fact it is more like an old saw mill than a light station." John C. Ryan

"For my short stay at this station previous to this date, I certify to the above statement being correct." James Nightwire, 3rd Assistant.

February 2, 1888 Put new blowcock and pipe in new boiler, took down valve and chamber of south siren

February 3, 1888 Repairing new boiler and cleaned her out, found her very dirty. Filled her up and is in good order

February 4, 1888 Overhauling lens machinery. Put in a new cock in water pipe near tower, bought by keeper

February 7, 1888 Repairing siren with new piston pin and pet cock pipes. Repaired flag staff

February 8, 1888 Put new apron and pipe on top of lens in tower. Changed and cleaned burners

February 13, 1888 Put 2 new belts in north siren and packed top of it with sheet lead and canvas

February 15, 1888 Cleaned lens. Received cow from Mr. Murphy. Repaired battery and put in good working order

February 17, 1888 Supplies and two carpenters arrived by Madrona and groceries for keeper from S. Foster

February 18, 1888 Carpenters repairing windows in dwelling and making a workshop. Put up new range in Keepers kitchen

February 20, 1888 Carpenters repairing windows and doors. Took gauge pipe out of new boiler. Bartlett gone

February 21, 1888 Carpenters repairing windows. Keeper repairing signal. Put in new lamps and s. valve cords

February 22, 1888 Carpenters repairing windows. Coal tarred smoke stack and repaired old one

February 24, 1888 Carpenters repairing windows in dwelling. 1st Assistant off station 1 pm to 5 pm.

February 25, 1888 Carpenters repairing windows in oil room door. Keepers repairing in signal, windows and tower umbrella.

March 1, 1888 Carpenters repairing tower lantern umbrella. Making stepladder. Asst. washing lantern inside.

March 2, 1888 Carpenters making ladders for tower and putting down lumber. Keeper and asst. washing and painting inside lantern.

March 3, 1888 Carpenters repairing Shirle [sic] 1st asst. off station 8 am to 5 pm . Painting lantern inside.

March 5, 1888 2nd asst. off station 9 am. Keeper repaired water tank pipe. Cleaned up signal.

March 6, 1888 Carpenters building Shirle [sic]. Keepers scrubbing and painting inside of tower, 2nd asst. returned at 7 pm.

March 7, 1888 Carpenters building Shirle [sic]. Keepers scrubbing and painting inside of tower.

March 9, 1888 Carpenters repairing windows and doors in 1st asst. quarters. Keepers paining and cleaning lens and axle for wheelbarrow.

March 10, 1888 Carpenters repairing shute [sic] and reservation gate, Keepers painting lens and making bolts for shute [sic]

March 11, 1888 Sch. John Frederick at coal house. Keeper at gov't landing receiving supplies from schnr.

March 12, 1888 Carpenters repairing Shute [sic], Keepers painting in tower and making bolts for shute.

March 13, 1888 Carpenters repairing shute. Keepers painting in tower and putting [sic] oil cups on siren. Inspector at Station 4 pm. Inspected everything and went away well Pleased. A tinner arrived at 4 pm.

March 14, 1888 Carpenters at shute [sic], made vice bench in signal. Tinner roofing keepers kitchen. Keepers repairing siren.

March 16, 1888 Carpenters repairing fence near dwelling. Putting down coal. Keepers put down 226 sacks of coal.

March 17, 1888 Carpenters building shute [sic] near tower. Tinner at kitchen repairs and making siren grip.

March 18, 1888 Mr. William White Carpenter and John J. Richardson Tinsmith left station at 6pm.

March 19, 1888 Mr. Henson building shute [sic] Put new gauge cocks and glass in boiler, Cleaned lens

March 20, 1888 Mr. Henson building shute [sic]. 2nd asst. overhauled lens truck wheels. Keeper repairing signal.

March 22, 1888 Mr. Henson building shute [sic] keepers painting and repairing in signal. Moved steam gauges to a group

March 23, 1888 Mr. Henson building shute [sic]. Keepers painting and repairing in signal. Blew down new boiler.

March 25, 1888 Lamp burner in the tower got out of order, short wicks, Mr. Hatch and wife at station.

March 26, 1888 Mr. Henson building shute [sic]. Changed lamp burner in tower, painting in signal.

March 28, 1888 Mr. Henson building shute [sic]. Keepers repairing and painting in signal, scarping walls to paint.

March 30, 1888 Mr. Henson building shute [sic]. Keepers repairing and painting in signal. Put up a patron in carpenters shop.

April 2, 1888 Put new pet valves and tallow cup on north siren to make them operate from the bottom on piston of top instead

April 4, 1888 Repairing fence around dwelling, at 9:30 pm was called out to the tower, light going out, Lamp plunger slipping.

April 6, 1888 Built a new milk room in cellar of keepers quarters. Clearing away old rubbish in shute [sic].

April 10, 1888 Building an addition to the blacksmith shop. 3rd asst. left station for Olema at 8 am.

April 14, 1888 Papers arrived dismissing J. Twohey from the Service, 3rd asst. reports 1st asst. in writing to the Keeper.

April 16, 1888 At 9 am gave Mr. Twohey his papers dismissing him from the Lighthouse Service. M.J. Ryan assigned to duty as Substitute in Mr. Twohey's place.

April 20, 1888 James Twohey left with wife and traps at 12:30 pm after 7 years, 10 months and 16 days at this station.

May 11, 1888 Painting signal building and men making scaffolding for to scrape paint same.

May 15 -16 - 17- 18, 1888 Keeper fitting up on south siren. Assts. painting signal building.

May 20, 1888 Geo A Hussey and J. Nightwire promoted from 2nd and 3rd assts. to 1st and 2nd assts.

May 21, 1888 Got up steam and tested by running South Siren with her new valve and pistons. She works fine.

May 23, 1888 Coal tarred smokestack and signal white washed coalhouse, posts and railings around.

May 24, 1888 Painted oil room, black railing near tower, and whitewashed water tank. 2 men. 1 day.

May 25, 1888 Painted top of water tank and ladder. Whitewashing fence and blacksmith shop.

May 28, 1888 Painted carpenter shop and whitewashed fence between dwelling and blacksmiths shop.

May 31, 1888 Signal in use. Madrona passed north about 7:15 pm. 1st asst. returned at 6pm.

June 2nd, 1888 Very foggy last night. At 2 am the south siren got bunged up on Hussey and changed off to right one.

June 4, 1888 Kate Field at station last night and left at 1:30 pm. 2nd asst. off station to Point Reyes 5 am to 6 pm.

June 6, 1888 Overhauled battery and put it in working order. 1st asst. left for S.F. with disk at 5 am.

June 8, 1888 Madrona arrived in port at 8 am, brought a new medicine chest and took old one away.

June 9, 1888 Put up siren castings. She is ready for use. Took down tower and signal clocks.

June 12, 1888 Got one load of supplies for station. Mr. Burdell and Mr. Feather from signal office, at station.

June 14, 1888 No work. Fog in. Asst. complaining off [sic] doing too much work. Mikie left for Farallones with new lens cover.

June 15, 1888 Cleaning bright work in the tower and lense. Inspector at station 7 to 8 pm.

June 18, 1888 Whitewashing shute [sic] between coal house and signal, by orders of Comdr. Ludlow.

June 21, 1888 Whitewashing steep steps below coal house and the lower end of the upper shute [sic].

June 23, 1888 South siren got disabled at 6:05 pm. 2nd asst. on watch. 1st asst. left for Olema at 6am. 2nd asst. went after him with a dispatch for Inspector Engineer. Returned at 6 pm.

June 24, 1888 Mr. Black of Madrona and Mr. Schroder, Machinist arrived at station at 2:30 am. We put up a new 10 inch whistle and sent cutter of siren away to the shop for repairs.

June 25, 1888 Took inside cutter off south siren, took all the loose iron out, took out old one and put in new brass pipe for oil cup leading through siren. Mr. Schroder arrived at 3 pm with siren.

June 30, 1888 Mr. Schroder and Keeper repairing sirens. 2nd asst. off station 9 am to 4 pm. 1st asst. finished steps.

July 3, 1888 Machinist, Keeper, and 2nd asst. at Sirens 1st asst. at Pt. Reyes R.R. Station 6 am to 6 pm with mail.

July 4, 1888 Machinist, Keeper, and 2nd asst. at sirens. 1st asst. at Ranch 10 am to 2 pm. Fog in.

July 9, 1888 Finishing up at sirens. Cleaned lens. Mr. R.F. Schroder left station about 6 pm.

July 12, 1888 Painted top of tower lantern, gallery, rails, and ladder (Hussey came home sick.)

July 25, 1888 Repairing force pump for the top of the cistern. Cleaned up in signal and put coal down.

July 28, 1888 Painted front room in Keepers quarters. 3rd asst. off station at Pt. Reyes 5 am to 7 pm.

July 30, 1888 Signal in use, some overhauling North engine governor, it would not work last night.

July 31, 1888 Overhauling South Siren, putting on new gardener governor and changed burners.

August 5, 1888 Comdr. Nicol Ludlow Inspector arrived at 8 am. Inspected station thoroughly and seemed pleased.

August 7, 1888 3rd asst. kalsoming his quarters. Signal in use, Keeper overhauling governor.

August 11, 1888 Keeper and 3rd asst. overhauling battery and made it work. 1st asst. returned at 9 pm.

August 12, 1888 3rd asst. volunteer, running tower watch 12 am every night to 5 am and no signal watch til he learn signal.

August 13, 1888 Painting and whitewashing around dwelling and in it. Finished w.washing at dwelling.

August 22, 1888 Repairing shute [sic] near signal and running sirens. Both sirens working fine.

August 23, 1888 Made 2 new pins for north siren piston. 3rd asst. off station to city 7 am. 1st asst. got hand hurt.

August 25, 1888 Overhauling sirens. 2nd and 3rd asst. put coal down. North siren in use and working splendid.

August 29, 1888 Changed lamp in the tower and overhauled N. siren governor. Signal in use and working fine.

August 30, 1888 Packing sirens and put down coal. 3rd asst. doing no work but stand 6 hours watch.

August 31, 1888 Overhauling governors. 3rd asst. helped to put down some coal. Sirens working in first class order.

September 1, 1888 Overhauling in signal. Left 15 inches in cistern, 4 ft. for use in tank 2 inches. Siren broke on 1st asst. about 5 pm and the Keeper worked till 12 mid repairing. 2nd and 3rd put some coal down.

September 3, 1888 Overhauled both sirens with new gaskets and freed the steam port on the south siren.

September 4, 1888 Putting down mineral oil near the tower. 2nd asst. at Olema 6 am to 5 pm.

September 6, 1888 At 6:30 pm S. siren shafting got heated up and She would not work. Changed off to north siren.

September 7, 1888 Overhauled and put siren all right for work. 3rd asst. stowed away last of the mineral oil in paint shop.

September 9, 1888 3rd asst. put down 9 sacks of coal. 1st asst. off station at Olema 6 am and San Rafael with hand sore.

September 10, 1888 Overhauled north siren throttle valve and put new gaskets on its siren. 1st asst. returned at 3 pm.

September 11, 1888 Keeper overhauling sirens and boiler. 2nd asst. making pins. 3rd asst. put 12 sacks coal. 1st asst. only stands watch in tower. A schooner ashore 2 miles south of light station.

September 12, 1888 Keeper running sirens and packing same. 1st asst. cleaning in lens. 3rd put down some coal.

September 13, 1888 Put coal down and cleaned in signal. 3rd asst. off station at 7 am to Pt. Reyes to see doctor.

September 14, 1888 Put up new battery. Cleaned in signal and tower. Cleaned out Keepers cistern.

September 15, 1888 Rained 2 feet last night. Made 2 measuring rods for cistern. 1st asst. cleaning in tower. Johnnie Ryan telegraphing to Feather in Olema. Water in cistern raised two feet last night and dwelling cistern one ft. Available 4 ft.

September 16, 1888 One gasket blew out of each siren and repaired both. Keeper and 2nd asst.

September 17, 1888 1st asst. left station at 11 am to see a doctor and lost a letter to Inspector. Mr. Hussey hauled first load of water 250 gallons, acting substitute Fred Hussey.

September 18, 1888 Put down coal, 2nd asst. left off doing duty at 6 am. 1st asst. returned at 5 pm. J.F. Ryan, 1st asst. at Farallon arrived at 5 pm.

September 20, 1888 James Nightwire 2nd asst. left station at 1 pm. Transferred and promoted as 1st asst. at Pigeon Point.

September 22, 1888 L.L. Feather 3rd asst. and operator, came on station, packed up, brought a sub resigned and left at 3pm.

September 23, 1888 J.F. Ryan 1st asst. from Farallon left here at 11 am. Patrick A. Campbell commenced as sub for 2nd asst.

September 25, 1888 Keeper painting dwelling window and shutters. 1st asst. and subs cleaning in signal and sawing wood.

September 27, 1888 Major Hauser, Lt. House Engineer arrived at 7 am. Inspected station and left at 9 am.

October 3, 1888 J. L. Bartlett arrived at 12 mer. and is on watch in tower as Campbells sub who left for city at 2 pm.

October 4, 1888 Bartlett on duty at sub. Charles E. Smails arrived at 11 am as 3rd asst. and operator.

October 8, 1888 Bartlett left and P.A. Campbell called down to repair sirens by Mr. Smails at 2 pm.

October 9, 1888 1st and 3rd asst. repairing in signal. Keeper and 2nd asst. sealing tower outside.

October 15, 1888 Put down coal. Keeper and 2nd asst., 1st asst. at signal, 3rd asst. cleaned up around coal pile.

October 21, 1888 Fine day. Mr. Keefe, Mr. Monahan and 3 men arrived at 1 pm to work on station. Cleaned lense three times and bright work 7 times. Overhauled north siren.

October 29, 1888 Painting dwelling window shutters green. and 6 men repairing yards, sewers, doors.

October 30, 1888 Keeper and 2nd asst. painting windows. Operator doing nothing. A bark ashore about 6 miles north of station. She got off and sailed away about 2 pm.

October 31, 1888 Whitewashing dwelling and cellars and yard and fence, Mr. Keefe and men repairing in general.

November 1, 1888 All hands painting and whitewashing in dwelling. Mr. Keefe and men 2 carpenters repairing. 1 plasterer and 2 laborers. McVey left.

November 2, 1888 Cleaning around dwelling. Chas. E. Smails left station at 7 am for city on Madrona.

November 3, 1888 Cleaning around dwelling, cleaned lens. Pat Campbell acting as "sub" for Smails since 12 am.

November 5, 1888 Painting dwelling window shutters and whitewashing around dwelling. Mr. Keefe and 3 men left at 6 pm.

November 6, 1888 Republican keeper and Pat Campbell at polls to vote 7 am to 2 pm. 1st Asst. off station to vote at 12 m. to 6 pm.

November 9, 1888 Painting dwelling outside, whitewashing fences. J.L. Bartlett at station.

November 13, 1888 Cleaning in tower and putting down coal. Keeper overhauling north siren governor.

November 14, 1888 Cleaning in signal. Put new rope on tower machinery. Keeper and 2nd asst. painting in Keepers Kitchen.

November 23, 1888 Painting in dwelling and cleaning fog signal. Keeper off station at Point Reyes 11am. Returned at 4 pm.

November 26, 1888 Changed burners in tower. Blew down and washed out boiler and put in new gauge glass.

November 27, 1888 Painting dwelling outside. 3 men. Mr. Dundon and Dyer at station about new boiler.

This content was published online before January 20, 2025. Please note that this content is NOT UPDATED , and links may not work. For current information, visit https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/news/index.htm .

POINT REYES STATION, Calif. - A portion of West Marin County’s grassy rolling hills and coastal scrub, where cows have grazed since the 1850s, are newly designated national historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places.

The recognition of the Point Reyes Peninsula Dairy Ranches Historic District and the Olema Valley Dairy Ranches Historic District as nationally significant will inform the federal government plans for the future of Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s north district.

The ranching history on the Point Reyes peninsula and the Olema Valley runs deep. By the 1870s, these ranches catapulted Marin County to the forefront of California’s butter and cheese production.

The 22,237-acre Point Reyes Peninsula Dairy Ranches Historic District, listed on the National Register in October 2018, consists of seventeen tenant-operated dairy ranches established by the Shafter and Howard families beginning in 1857. The 14,127-acre Olema Valley Dairy Ranches Historic District, between Bolinas and Point Reyes Station, was formally listed in April 2018 and includes nineteen properties operated by tenants or families beginning in 1856. Together, they reflect more than a century of change and modernization in the industry including the evolution from original wood frame milking barns to concrete Grade A sanitary barns of the 1940s.

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of historic buildings, structures, sites, objects and districts worthy of preservation. It provides formal recognition of a property’s architectural, historical, or archaeological significance and ensures those aspects are considered in planning state or federally assisted projects. It encourages preservation through public awareness, federal and state tax incentives, and grants.

The National Park Service has more than 20,000 employees who care for America’s 418 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve natural areas, share local history, and provide close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov .

Feeling social? Follow Point Reyes National Seashore on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram (@PointReyesNPS), and YouTube !

The sea is the soul of Point Reyes. It not only affects the climate and the species found here, but it is the key influence on the human history of the area. The Coast Miwok have depended on this coastline for food and materials for thousands of years; Spanish explorers and merchants , returning with spice and silk from the Asia, navigated by these cliffs and shores; and gold miners, dairy farmers , and lumbermen counted on the ships that sailed these waters for transporting their goods to and from market. Point Reyes' maritime history is a microcosm of California's history.

Today, Point Reyes National Seashore helps preserve the maritime history of California. Among the dozens of shipwrecks that were lost in the waters off Point Reyes, lie the remains of the San Agustin. Wrecked in Drakes Bay in 1595, it is the first shipwreck in California history. The San Agustin was only the first of a long line of tragedies. While Point Reyes provided a landmark, it also posed a hazard to generations of sailors who navigated these waters.

In an attempt to reduce the number of wrecks and to provide aid in navigation along these rocky shores, the U.S. Lighthouse Service built the Point Reyes Lighthouse in 1870. For 105 years, it provided mariners with guidance and aid. Despite the efforts of the men and women who worked at the lighthouse, ships continued to wreck on the rocks and beaches. In 1889, the U.S. Life-Saving Service opened the first of two Life Saving Stations built at Point Reyes. The second station, the Point Reyes Lifeboat Station at the southwest end of Drakes Beach near Chimney Rock , and the last intact marine railway on the West Coast, closed in 1968. The men stationed there attempted the rescue of victims of storm and wreck. The incredible danger of their job can be sensed in their unofficial motto, "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back in."

As technology improved, other means of protecting navigation and communication with ships at sea appeared. Beginning in 1913, Guglielmo Marconi, a pioneer of wireless radio, built radio stations in the area. Ultimately, transmitting and receiving stations in Bolinas, on Tomales Bay, and near the Great Beach reached out across the Pacific to provide communications to ships at sea. Station KPH, the maritime radio station owned by Marconi and later by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), signed off in 1997 and brought to a close an important chapter in Point Reyes’ history .

Whether in climbing down the stairs to the Lighthouse or walking out to the Lifeboat Station, today's visitor can gain a better appreciation for the impact the sea has played on the history of California and in particular, on Point Reyes.

The cultural history of Point Reyes reaches back some 5,000 years to the Coast Miwok Indians who were the first human inhabitants of the Peninsula. Over 120 known village sites exist within the park. According to many experts, Francis Drake landed here in 1579, the first European explorer to do so. In response to the many shipwrecks in the treacherous coastal waters, key lighthouse and lifesaving stations were established by the United States Government in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the early 1800s, Mexican land grantees established ranchos. They were followed by a wave of American agricultural operations , which continue to this day in the Seashore's pastoral zone. By 1914, Guglielmo Marconi sited and commissioned the building of a wireless telegraphy stations in the Point Reyes area, which played an important role in maritime communications for ships on the Pacific Ocean through the late 1900s.

Learn more about the People , Places , Historic Landscapes , Historic Structures , and Archeology at Point Reyes National Seashore.

The Point Reyes National Seashore museum collection currently holds over forty oral history interviews compiled by the park historian between 1985–1994.

The Point Reyes National Seashore Museum holdings include natural history specimens, archeological collections, historic objects, and archives.

Museum and Archives Reference Services are unavailable until October 1, 2017. We regret that no staff is available to assist with access to archival collections, objects or specimens at the present time. Please check back with us in October. Thank you.

As wildland habitat is lost elsewhere in California, the relevance of the Point Reyes Peninsula increases as a protected area with a notable rich biological diversity. Over 45% of North American avian species and nearly 18% of California's plant species are found in the park due to the variety of habitat and uniqueness of the geology. Thirty federally-listed threatened and endangered species of animals and six federally-listed threatened or endangered species of plants exist within the Seashore.

Even if you can only visit here for a day, you will begin to see what we have at Point Reyes National Seashore and how it works. As you drive through windswept Bishop pines , hike up Mt. Wittenberg under towering Douglas firs , or walk along Bear Valley Trail through mixed woodlands to the exposed coastal scrub near the ocean, you will begin to see patterns. You might ask yourself why certain plant communities grow in certain places.

Their placement began with ancient geologic forces that created the bedrock and soils. Particular characteristics in these soils determine which types of plants can survive in different locations. Hills, valleys, and exposure provide further discrimination for plants, depending on their sunlight needs and tolerance to winds. Nothing is random in what you are observing—plants grow where they can survive forming the foundations of all other life including our own.

During your exploration you may also catch a glimpse of some of the animals that make their home here. Wildlife abounds throughout the Seashore. Along the coast you may find marine mammals such as whales , harbor or elephant seals , and sea lions. A closer look reveals an abundance of bird life feeding near the tideline. Back in the forest, you may glimpse a bobcat, coyote, raccoon, or skunk scurrying off. We also have plenty of deer and elk to be seen.

Discover more about the diverse habitats at Point Reyes by reading Defining Habitats (449 KB PDF - Adobe® Acrobat Reader® may be needed to view PDF documents).

To learn more about some of the research being conducted at Point Reyes, visit the Pacific Coast Science and Learning Center and the San Francisco Bay Area Inventory & Monitoring Program websites.

With nearly 490 species recorded (over 50% of species of birds in North America), Point Reyes National Seashore easily claims the prize for the greatest avian diversity in any U.S. national park. The species total here, in fact, is larger than the species total in each of forty of the United States. Some of the factors responsible for attracting this amazing diversity are Point Reyes' location at an optimal latitude its diverse habitats, its location along the Pacific Flyway, and the shape of the peninsula which acts as a geographic magnet.

While all birds at Point Reyes are protected, two threatened species currently are the focus of studies and extra steps to ensure their survival: the snowy plover and the northern spotted owl .

View Birds of Point Reyes National Seashore species list. (205 KB PDF, Adobe® Acrobat Reader® may be needed to view the PDF.)

On the heels of a 2018 NPS-National Audubon Society study of potential climate change -driven shifts in bird species distributions, Audubon has launched a new community science program— Climate Watch —to test the science and monitor for expected changes. Climate Watch surveys take place in the winter (January 15–February 15) and in the summer breeding season (May 15–June 15). Learn more...

The northern spotted owl, which is recognized as threatened by the United States government, prospers in the mild climate of Point Reyes.

Point Reyes provides the western snowy plover with important nesting habitat. Learn more about this federally threatened species.

Find out what is happening out at the nesting sites and how you can help ensure snowy plovers have a productive nesting season.

From 2007 to 2012, Pacific Coast Science and Learning Center Science Communication Interns produced a series of podcasts, videos, and audio-slide shows exploring science from Bay Area national parks. One of these The Natural Laboratory podcasts focused on how climate change may impact birds in California. Listen to the podcast below. Visit our Multimedia Presentations: The Natural Laboratory Audio Podcasts page for additional podcasts.

Point Reyes National Seashore is a jewel in the California Floristic Province—one of 25 regions of the world where biological diversity is most concentrated and the threat of loss most severe. Unique geology, soils, and climate conditions make for a highly variable landscape within a relatively small land base. The Seashore encompasses over 70,000 acres of dunes, sandy and rocky beaches, coastal grasslands, Douglas fir and bishop pine forests, wetlands, chaparral, and wilderness lakes. The broad range of plant communities supports over 900 species of vascular plants—pretty amazing! This number represents about 15% of the California flora. Three plants are considered endemic to Point Reyes.

As native systems have been altered in other areas of California, many native plants have been pushed to the brink of extinction. Point Reyes National Seashore serves as a refuge for an astonishing number of these rare plants. Over 50 plants at Point Reyes are currently listed by the Federal government, State government, or the California Native Plant Society as being rare, threatened, or endangered. These threatened, rare, and endangered plants are actively monitored and managed by park scientists.

Unfortunately, approximately 300 of the plants within the park are not native. These include a wide variety of grasses in the pastoral zone, South African capeweed, scotch broom, pampas grass, and trees such as eucalyptus, cypress, and Monterey Pine. Invasive non-native species tend to spread very rapidly and out-compete native plants for scarce space and resources. To curb the tide of many of the Seashore's non-native invasive plants , volunteers are recruited to remove the most threatening species.

Note: Some organisms in this “Plants” category, such as marine plants and algae, are placed here for convenience, but they are not truly plants. Real plants include multi-cellular organisms that produce food through photosynthesis. The plant kingdom includes vascular plants (seedless and seed plants) and the bryophytes (liverworts, hornworts, and mosses).

With close to 80 miles of coastline, Point Reyes National Seashore has an abundance of species of algae, and a few species of marine plants.

Douglas fir, bishop pine, coast live oak, bay laurel, and coyote bush are some of the more common species of tree and shrubs at Point Reyes.

Over 50 plants at Point Reyes are currently recognized as being rare, threatened, or endangered.

Five plants found at Point Reyes are recognized as endemic, meaning that they are only found at Point Reyes and nowhere else in the world.

Point Reyes National Seashore has a variety of habitat types, from coastal dunes, to dense forests. The broad range of habitat types supports over 900 species of vascular plants, three of which are endemic , i.e., found nowhere else on Earth. Of these plants, over 50 are currently listed by the Federal government, State government, or the California Native Plant Society as being rare, threatened, or endangered. For a species to be listed as endangered, it has to be in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Threatened means a species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

We as humans are intricately connected to all species around us. By saving something as seemingly insignificant as a rare plant, you also save other organisms that depend upon those plants. These may be insects or herbivorous animals such as rabbits, deer, or even mice that need the seeds of the flower of a particular species to live.

Did you know that a tiny plant could save your life? Plants are important sources of medicine and are potential ingredients to remedies for ailments humans may not yet have experienced. Drawing from the soil and a lush matrix of interdependence between organisms, the plant itself may someday hold the key to curing and treating future illness and disease.

At the cellular level, organisms need healthy "genetic stock" or diversity in genetic make-up to withstand environmental or catastrophic conditions. In other words, an organism that has many different genes as opposed to similar genes is more likely to withstand blight or a storm, disease or a drought. Having diverse genes acts as insurance against extinction and adds to an organism's resiliency. We need healthy populations, or as scientists say "viable populations", of organisms to continue to have a healthy gene pool. When populations become small, all offspring turn out to have the same genetic makeup. This makes that particular species more prone to being wiped out by factors such as blight or environmental events such as hurricanes and floods. Larger populations are healthier because of the reservoir of genes to produce healthier more resilient offspring.

While we humans have the ability to dramatically impact and even wipe out other species and their habitat, we also have the ability to preserve and protect these same species and their habitat. As habitat is lost to human development, protected areas like Point Reyes National Seashore are increasingly important to the protection and recovery of species that are on the verge of disappearing from our world.

Rare plant populations and their protection depend on us as conservationists and land stewards to take action. Their survival becomes entrusted to our care as land use values shift and these populations suffer from grazing pressure and the competition of non-native plant species . The fragile nature and fate of these organisms rests within our willingness and capacity to locate, map, monitor and protect these plants. If you would like to help the park protect threatened, rare, and endangered plants, visit the Habitat Restoration Volunteer Program page.

What should you do when you see an at-risk species in parks? What can you do when you go home to help at-risk species? Where do you start? Little actions can have big impacts when undertaken by many people. Visit the National Park Service's At-Risk Species : What You Can Do page to learn more.

Invasive and non-native species are a significant threat to at-risk species. The best way to fight the spread of invasive species is to prevent them from occuring in the first place. There are a variety of ways you can help do this, whether you are at home or in a national park. Visit the National Park Service's Invasive & Non-Native Species : What You Can Do page to learn more.

Bishop pine forests are unique to granitic quartz-diorite soils. Fragments of bishop pine forests exist along the coast of California where the climate, soil and fire regime are just right for their growth. Here at Point Reyes, these forests are not hard to find. They grow primarily all along the northern end of Inverness Ridge. Post-fire, you can find young pines of the same age crowded together such as along the Drakes View Trail. Dense pine patches alternate with dense stands of blue blossom and the very rare Marin manzanita. Over time, young forests self-thin, giving way to mature forests mixed with bay laurel, madrone, coast live oak, tanoak, huckleberry, salal and swordfern. The bishop pine forest bounces back quickly from a fire. Over one third of the pine forest you see today was ash in 1995 after a fire raged through the Mount Vision area . Can you guess what other national park has bishop pines? (Channel Islands NP).

As visitors drive along Limantour Road, they may notice that an increasing number of the bishop pine trees have tan needles at the end of their branches, and some trees are even dying. This is a result of pine pitch canker, which is a disease caused by the fungus Fusarium circinatum , which was discovered in a bishop pine forest at Point Reyes National Seashore around 2006. This has raised concern regarding the spread of F. circinatum through native stands of bishop pine and other susceptible host tree species beyond coastal California. Visit our Pine Pitch Canker page to learn more, including how you can help limit the spread of this disease.

A piece of the Pacific Northwest grows on the east side of Inverness Ridge. Here enough rain falls in the winter to quench the thirst of this fast-growing tree and the trees, shrubs and herbs that sprout underneath. They are buoyed in the summer by fog moisture. The plants thrive in soil derived from marine sediments.

If you walk through the fir forest along Sky Trail or Bear Valley on a foggy day, on a day when it's too damp and cold for turkey vultures to fly, you'll notice how moist the ground is and you'll feel the fog drip from the boughs of the trees overhead. Douglas fir trees are very adept at capturing moisture out of the air and, even when it's not raining, it may feel like rain within the forest. Scientists have found that the precipitation beneath fir trees is twice the annual rainfall. At Point Reyes, where the annual rainfall averages about 40 inches a year, the total precipitation in the fir forest may be more than 80 inches! (How tall are you? Compare your height with the annual rainfall and the total precipitation in a fir forest.)

This ability to capture moisture in the air ensures that the ground will be recharged (or rehydrated) by the trees and ultimately provides the foundation for a diverse forest. Looking up, you will see the Douglas fir trees soaring straight up to form a canopy. Lowering your gaze, you will see California bays, tanoaks, and coast live oaks bending upwards, and right at your eye level you can see coffeeberry, California hazel, red elderberry, ceanothus, poison oak, huckleberry, thimbleberry, honeysuckles, bouquets of ferns and small woodland herbs. This vegetation type describes over 30,000 acres of the Seashore. Sudden Oak Death is a relatively recent phenomenon to this community; expect to see dead and dying tanoaks and true oaks in the forest canopy as Sudden Oak Death continues to spread throughout this community.

The Douglas fir is a grand tree; some individuals within the national seashore rival redwoods in girth and height. Like Bishop pine forests, Douglas fir forests thrive following a fire. The seeds germinate readily, but only those seedlings survive that receive direct sunlight and whose roots come in contact with mineral soil. Therefore, before a new forest can become established, some event must clear the mother forest, provide a bed of mineral soil, and reduce competition from other trees. Fire is the only natural event that provides these conditions.

The mixed woodland forests surrounding the Douglas firs contain coast live oaks and tan oaks that provide habitat and food for many species including the acorn woodpecker. The black-tailed deer is commonly seen in these forests.

Take time to explore Point Reyes National Seashore, and you will find that wildlife abounds. Animals at Point Reyes National Seashore range from large marine mammals such as the northern elephant seal to the relatively small endangered Myrtle's silverspot butterfly . Because Point Reyes National Seashore is part of the California Floristic Province (characterized by Mediterranean vegetation) and a zone of overlap of marine provinces (Californian and Oregonian), a wide variety of animals are found in the diversity of habitats.

Current inventories document approximately 80 species of mammals , 85 species of fish , 29 species of reptiles and amphibians , and thousands of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate species. Nearly half the bird species of North America, 490 species, have been spotted here. Over fifty species of animals at Point Reyes are listed by the state or federal government as threatened, rare, or endangered . To help us better protect some of these species, the park uses remote wildlife monitoring cameras to gather information about the presence of species, the numbers of individuals, and their behaviors and habitat selection.

The animal life found at Point Reyes National Seashore is as varied as the landscape. Diverse crustaceans , echinoderms , mollusks , and other invertebrates may be found where water meets the land. Whether you choose to hike the mountains or stroll along the shores, keep your eyes and ears open for a chance to experience nature at its best.

Every day wildlife are killed on Marin County roads, including within the National Seashore. Please drive at or below posted speed limits to reduce the chance of colliding with wildlife. If you hit an animal while driving within the National Seashore and there is significant damage to your vehicle, or if you see a recently roadkilled animal that is creating a road hazard on a park roadway, please contact park dispatch at 415-464-5170. You can also help increase researchers' understanding of the extent of roadkill and help develop innovative ideas for reducing roadkill by reporting the roadkill to the California Roadkill Observation System .

With nearly 490 species recorded, Point Reyes National Seashore has the greatest avian diversity in any U.S. national park.

Point Reyes National Seashore provides habitat to a large variety of insects, spiders, centipedes, and millipedes.

Point Reyes is home to 46 species of native land mammals and the adjacent marine waters support at least 25 species of marine mammals.

The phylum Mollusca is large and diverse, encompassing ten different classes of animals, including bivalves, chitons, and gastropods.

Point Reyes National Seashore encompasses approximately 71,000 acres of grassland, forest and shoreline along the Pacific coast north of San Francisco. The diversity of habitat is home to 46 species of native land mammals. While driving or hiking through the seashore you are likely to see some of these residents, such as bobcat and the tule elk. The shoreline, that interface between the aquatic and terrestrial environments, provides prime haul-out and breeding sites for several species of seals and sea lions. The adjacent marine waters (which include two National Marine Sanctuaries) support at least 25 species of whales and porpoises that can sometimes be seen from the mainland.

Bats are the only mammals that are capable of true flight. Thirteen species of bats have been reported at Point Reyes.

Black bears were an important part of Point Reyes before they were extirpated. Every now and then, one will briefly wander through the area.

Gray whales delight visitors as they pass by the Point Reyes peninsula during their winter and spring migrations.

Harbor seals are residents of Point Reyes and may be sighted year-round both on land and in the nearshore waters.

The subspecies of mountain beaver found at Point Reyes (Aplodontia rufa phaea) is endemic to the area—that means it is found nowhere else.

The tule elk is one of the two subspecies of elk that are native to California and is the only subspecies found at Point Reyes.

Explore Point Reyes on Foot! Hiking opportunities in Point Reyes are seemingly endless. Find solitude in Douglas-fir forests, take in iconic views of the Pacific Ocean or traverse the rolling coastal hillsides—sometimes all in one hike! These route descriptions alone are not a substitute for a trail map. Download a trail map or purchase one at a park bookstore prior to hiking. Additional information and tips about hiking may be found on our Hiking at Point Reyes National Seashore page. Use the guide below to search for hikes by time, habitat, or location. Trail Advisories and Closures Please observe all trail closures and barriers. Trails are closed for a variety of reasons, such as for visitor safety, to protect endangered species, to prevent erosion, and/or to allow new sections of trail to harden. Visitors who disregard trail closures may endanger themselves and any potential rescuers, harm threatened and endangered species, exacerbate erosion, or prevent new sections of trail from properly hardening, which results in the degradation of the trail surface, which in turn may require the closing of the trail for repair. Thank you for your cooperation. Caution: Most trails in the park are overgrown with grass and annuals. The park's trail crew is working to address the trail conditions as best they can, but please anticipate wading through vegetation as you hike, and check yourself for ticks during and after your hike. Visit our Trail Advisories and Closures for current information. By Time Check out hiking options based on how much time you have to spend in the park.

By Habitat or Location Trails at Point Reyes National Seashore pass through a wide variety of amazing habitats. Choose your hike based on what kind of areas you want to explore or what kind of wildlife you might be hoping to see! Or do you already know where you'd like to start? Browse through the park's trailheads and find suggested routes that begin at each location.

Hiking at Point Reyes National Seashore Top of Page Hiking Rules and Regulations Pets are only allowed on one trail and a few beaches in Point Reyes, and must always be on a leash. Know where you can go before planning a trip with your pet. Drones are not allowed anywhere in Point Reyes National Seashore. Observe trail closures and warning signs. Certain areas and trails are closed for a variety of reasons, including visitor safety, the protection of endangered species, and the privacy of park residents. Do not feed or disturb wildlife. If your presence changes the behavior of any wild animal, you are too close. Backcountry camping is only permitted in designated campgrounds with a valid permit. Stay on trails to prevent erosion as well as to better avoid poison oak , stinging nettles , ticks , and yellow jackets . Hikers must yield to horses on the trail, and use caution when passing by. Day users traveling within designated wilderness areas may not travel in groups of more than 25 persons. Hiking Tips and Safety Check for current trail advisories and closures . Leave No Trace . Take only pictures; leave only footprints. If you're heading for the coast, check local weather and tide information before your hike, or inquire at any visitor center . Always prepared for sudden changes in the weather with plenty of extra layers. Carry plenty of food and water. Potable water is available at the park's visitor centers and backcountry campgrounds . Do not drink water from untreated sources. Allow a 2 mile per hour pace (3 km/h) for an average hiker, not including stops. Tell a friend where you are going if you travel alone.

Short on time? Visiting with family or looking for a mellow stroll? Explore one of these trails that offer a fun adventure in under an hour.

Want a big adventure but don't have all day? Explore one of these routes which range in difficulty.

Pack a day bag with the essentials before you head out to some of the park's most remote reaches!

Enjoy all the coast has to offer with these hikes that take you over coastal grasslands or down to sandy beaches.

Looking for shade, and maybe some solitude? Explore some of our more forested trails.

Find out more about the parking, amenities and trails that originate from each trailhead.

Between variable weather, seasonal closures to protect wildlife or emergencies—it's important to check conditions before heading out!

Take only pictures, leave only footprints. Learn how to minimize your impact while visiting Point Reyes.

415-464-5100 This number will initially be answered by an automated attendant, from which one can opt to access a name directory, listen to recorded information about the park (e.g., directions to the park; visitor center hours of operation; fire danger information; wildlife updates; ranger-led programs; seasonal events; etc.), or speak with a ranger. Please note that if you are calling between 4:30 pm and 10 am, park staff may not be available to answer your call.

Backcountry Camping at Point Reyes National Seashore No Potable Water at Wildcat Campground Updated: Saturday, January 29, 2020 The Wildcat Campgrounds' water system is not operating and will be unavailable for use until further notice. However, there is still potable water at Coast, Glen, and Sky Campgrounds. Campers at Wildcat Campground should bring all the drinking water they will need for their stay. No Potable Water at Glen and Wildcat Campgrounds Updated: Sunday, July 31, 2022 On July 30, 2022, the water faucet at Wildcat Campground was broken and all of the water in the water tank for both Glen and Wildcat Campgrounds drained out. Until further notice, there is no potable water available at Glen or Wildcat Campgrounds. However, there is still potable water at Coast and Sky Campgrounds. Campers at Glen and Wildcat Campgrounds should bring all the drinking water they will need for their stay. Important Notice to Campers during the Federal Government Shutdown Posted: Saturday, December 22, 2018 The NPS will not be providing services for the NPS-operated campgrounds, including maintenance, janitorial, bathrooms, check-in/check-out, issuance of backcountry permits and parking passes, and reservations. Visitors in NPS-operated campgrounds will not be asked to leave unless safety concerns require such action. Visitors holding campground reservations should be aware that there is no guarantee their reserved campsite will be ready and available should they arrive during a government shutdown. Campground water systems will not be maintained as potable. Be sure to pack sufficient water or be able to treat or filter water. No trash collection will be provided; Pack It In, Pack It Out. Vault toilets will not be maintained. Campers are encouraged to bring their own toilet paper. Please help keep the vault toilets clean. Leave No Trace . Limantour Road is Closed until Further Notice Limantour Road is closed until further notice. As a result, campers will be unable to park their vehicles at the Sky Trailhead, Laguna Trailhead, Coast Trailhead, and Limantour Beach until further notice. The closest open parking lot to Coast and Sky campgrounds is the Bear Valley Trailhead parking lot. If you are starting your hike from the Bear Valley area, please park your vehicle(s) in the gravel parking lot on the left (east) side of the access road close to the Bear Valley Trailhead, not in the paved parking lot adjacent to the Bear Valley Visitor Center. ( Bear Valley Map - 427 KB PDF) --> Visitors may make online reservations for backcountry and boat-in campsites in the Seashore at Recreation.gov . hours of operation . Please Note: Reservation/Confirmation Notice ≠ Permit. Even though you may have made a reservation, you must stop by the Bear Valley Visitor Center on your arrival date to pick up your camping permit and parking pass(es).--> How To Make A Reservation... Please note: The Coast Trail between the Point Reyes Hostel and the Coast Campground is once again open. Though the Coast Trail remains flooded , reservations are on sale for Coast Camp. Campers may access the Coast Camp by the Laguna Trail or from Limantour Beach. --> Point Reyes National Seashore offers year-round backcountry camping along Drakes Bay and among the hills and valleys of the Phillip Burton Wilderness , and boat-in camping on the west shore of Tomales Bay. Because of its location near the metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area, the campsites at Point Reyes are in great demand. You must reserve a permit through Recreation.gov in advance of arrival. Permits may be—and frequently are—reserved three months to the day in advance, so it's best to plan your trip well in advance. The backcountry sites may only be accessed by hiking , riding bicycles , or riding a horse to the campgrounds . The Tomales Bay boat-in "sites" may only be accessed by kayak , canoe, small motorboat, small sailboat, or other small vessel; personal watercraft (e.g., jet skis) are prohibited on Tomales Bay. There is no car or RV camping available in the park. There are, however, many nearby campgrounds , located outside of Point Reyes National Seashore, that do have car and RV camping. Hike-in camping is allowed only in the four established campgrounds ; campers may only occupy the numbered site specified on their permit. Boat-in camping is allowed on national park beaches on the west side of Tomales Bay north of Tomales Bay State Park's northern border (i.e., north of Indian Beach and Duck Cove). Otherwise, camping on beaches is prohibited. Our Campgrounds page has descriptions of the various campgrounds. Our Guide to Low Impact Boat Camping page has more information about overnight kayaking and boating on Tomales Bay. Camping rules & regulations , as stated below, must be observed. Please visit our Leave No Trace page to learn how you can help leave the backcountry in a better condition than you found it.

Camping fees $30/night/site (or permit) for "standard" sites/permits of up to 6 people $60/night/site (or permit) for small group sites/permits for 7–14 people—all members of the group must be from the same household or living unit until further notice --> $90/night/site (or permit) for large group sites/permits for 7–25 people Point Reyes National Seashore has no entrance or parking fees, but a printout of your email confirmation ( see Camping Permits section below ) must be displayed face up on the dashboard of each vehicle remaining overnight at park trailheads. Increase in Camping Fees for 2022 In 2021, Point Reyes National Seashore proposed to increase the fee for overnight stays at its park campgrounds. Increased revenue from campground fees will enable the park to better maintain facilities, enhance visitor services, and provide for better resource protection. The public was invited to comment on the proposed increase; the comment deadline was October 1, 2021. In early December 2021, park management decided to implement the fee increase on January 1, 2022. All reservations made after 9 am on January 1, 2022, will be charged the rates listed above. --> Discounts on Camping Fees: Individuals who have an Interagency Senior Pass , an Interagency Access Pass , a Golden Age, or a Golden Access Pass are eligible for a 50% discount on the camping fee for the 1–6-person permits; discounts are not available for the 7–25-person permits. Holders of these passes should ensure that they enter their pass number in the appropriate field when making a reservation online, or to ensure that one of the first things one tells a call center operator is that you have an eligible pass, e.g., "I would like to make a reservation to camp at Point Reyes National Seashore and I have an Interagency Senior/Access Pass." Individuals who have the following passes are not eligible for discounts on camping fees; these passes only apply to entrance fees. Interagency Annual Pass Interagency Annual Pass for Active Duty Military (and Their Dependents) Interagency Liftime Pass for Veterans and Gold Star Families Interagency Volunteer Pass Every Kid Outdoors Annual 4th Grade Pass Additionally, fee waivers are not available for recreational use user fees such as camping. Top of Page

Camping Permits and Parking Passes Campers do not need to check in at the Bear Valley Visitor Center until further notice. And, until further notice, Point Reyes National Seashore no longer has any permits that will be sold at the Bear Valley Visitor Center on a first-come, first-served, same-day, in-person basis. All campsites must be reserved online through Recreation.gov in advance of arrival. All available campsites will be shown as reservable on Recreation.gov. Do not arrive or camp at Point Reyes National Seashore without a reservation. Camping Permits: Camping is by permit only. Print your Recreation.gov confirmation email and be prepared to show it to park rangers on the trail and at your campsite. It is advisable to have an electronic copy on your phone or tablet. Camping permits must be obtained from the Bear Valley Visitor Center before starting your trip. If backpacking, the camping permit must be displayed on the exterior of your backpack as you are hiking from the trailhead to your campsite, and on the return trip. Attach the camping permit to a tent once you have set up camp so that it can be easily found if a ranger stops by your site for a compliance check while you are away from the site.--> Parking Permits : Place a printout of your email confirmation face up on the dashboard of each vehicle remaining overnight at park trailheads. Backpackers are welcome to park their vehicles overnight at the Bear Valley Trailhead , Sky Trailhead , Coast Trailhead , Laguna Trailhead , Limantour Beach South Parking Lot, Five Brooks Trailhead , and/or Palomarin Trailhead . There are no set limits on the number of vehicles per permit, but please carpool as much as possible. Vehicles parked overnight in the National Seashore without a valid and current confirmation printout are subject to citation. If you are starting your hike from Bear Valley, park your vehicle(s) in the gravel trailhead parking lot on the left (east) side of the access road close to the Bear Valley Trailhead. Download the Bear Valley Area Map (504 KB PDF), which shows the location of the trailhead parking lot relative to the Bear Valley Trailhead and the Bear Valley Visitor Center.

After-hours Check-in There is no after-hours self-registration for camping available. You must have made a reservation in advance to camp within Point Reyes National Seashore if you arrive after the Bear Valley Visitor Center closes. If you have made a reservation and are arriving after 4:30 pm (November–February) or 5 pm (March–October), you will need to contact the park at 415-464-5100 x2 x5 before 4 pm to inform us of how many overnight parking passes your party will need. A backcountry permit and the requested number of overnight parking passes will be left for you in a small wooden box on the back side of the information board outside of the Bear Valley Visitor Center. Retrieve your permit and parking passes from the box, fill in the highlighted sections of the permit: the trailhead(s) where you will start and end your hike; method of travel, i.e., foot, bike, horse, kayak, canoe, motorboat, etc.; number of people in your group; number of pack or saddle stock (if applicable); number of watercraft (if applicable); and date and signature. After filling out the permit, remove the carbon copies and place the carbon copies back in the wooden box. If you are starting your hike from Bear Valley, move your vehicle(s) over to the gravel parking lot on the left (east) side of the access road close to the Bear Valley Trailhead. Place a parking pass on the dashboard of each vehicle, making sure that it is visible from outside the vehicle. Using the wire twist tie provided, attach the waterproof original camping permit to your backpack as you travel to your campsite, and then attach the permit to the exterior of your tent once you've set up camp so that park personnel checking for compliance can easily find your permit. --> Cancellations and No Shows Please be courteous and cancel any nights of your reservation that you are unable to use. hours of operation ) before noon on the day after your scheduled arrival date to notify camping staff that you will be arriving late, your reservation will be considered a "No Show." No-show campers will lose all fees previously paid for the reservation and will be charged an additional $20 No Show fee. -->Review Recreation.gov's Rules & Reservation Policies page for more details. Top of Page

Rules & Regulations Permits are Required You do not need to check in at the Bear Valley Visitor Center. Print out your Recreation.gov confirmation email and be prepared to show it to park rangers on the trail and at your campsite. It is advisable to have an electronic copy on your phone or tablet. Campers without a valid backcountry permit may be cited. Camp in Designated Areas Camping is restricted to the four backpack campgrounds at numbered sites or to National Park beaches on the west side of Tomales Bay. Help keep the campsites small and compact and reduce damage to vegetation surrounding campsites and at Tomales Bay beaches by: At the hike-in campgrounds, set up tents and/or sleeping bags relatively close to the food storage locker, e.g., within 6 meters (20 feet). On the Tomales Bay beaches, set up tents and/or sleeping bags on the sand below the vegetation line. Camping on Beaches is Only Permitted on Tomales Bay Beaches. Camping on Ocean-facing Beaches is Prohibited. Camping on beaches that are not along the western shore of Tomales Bay north of Tomales Bay State Park is prohibited. All beaches along Point Reyes National Seashore are tidally influenced and may be inundated at high tide. Beaches can also be inundated during lower tides by sneaker waves or high surf. Parking and Overnight Parking Passes Place a printout of your email confirmation face up on the dashboard of each vehicle remaining overnight at park trailheads. If you are starting your hike from Bear Valley, park your vehicle(s) in the gravel parking lot on the left (east) side of the access road close to the Bear Valley Trailhead. ( Bear Valley Area Map - 427 KB PDF) An overnight parking pass must be displayed on the dashboard of every vehicle associated with a hike-in camping permit parked overnight in the National Seashore. If you are starting your hike from Bear Valley, park your vehicle(s) in the gravel parking lot on the left (east) side of the access road close to the Bear Valley Trailhead. ( Bear Valley Area Map - 427 KB PDF) --> Access to Tomales Bay Beaches Campers on Tomales Bay beaches must arrive by boat and may not drive, hike, bike, or ride horses to the beaches. Overnight parking for boat-in campers is prohibited within Point Reyes National Seashore (e.g., along the Pierce Point and L Ranch Roads and at the Marshall Beach Trailhead) and Tomales Bay State Park. Limits on the Number of Nights One Can Camp in the Seashore Camping is limited to four nights per visit, with a maximum of thirty nights per year. Restrictions on Parties of more than Six We do not allow groups of more than six people to split up into multiple standard sites within the same campground or acquire multiple permits for the same night. Groups of more than six are restricted to group sites* only, and, similarly, may not purchase more than one site per campground. Everyone associated with your party at a given campground must stay in the same, single campsite. Parties of six or fewer people are not permitted to reserve group sites. * Hike-in campground group sites include Coast 8, Coast 13, Sky 2, Wildcat 1, Wildcat 2, and Wildcat 3. Boat-in group "sites" (i.e., permits) include "Boat-in B Group" for parties of 7 to 14 and "Marshall Beach Group 1," "Marshall Beach Group 2," and "Tomales Beach Group" for parties of 15 to 25. * Hike-in campground group sites include Coast 8, Coast 13, Sky 2, Wildcat 1, Wildcat 2, and Wildcat 3. Boat-in group "sites" include "Boat-in B Group" for parties of seven to fourteen, and "Marshall Beach Group 1," "Marshall Beach Group 2," and "Tomales Beach Group" for parties of fifteen to twenty-five. --> Age Limits The minimum age of any camper is 18 unless accompanied by an adult. Permits are not issued to children 17 years of age or younger; an adult must pick up the permit at the Bear Valley Visitor Center and camp with the youth.

Pets Dogs or other pets are prohibited on almost all trails within Point Reyes National Seashore, as well as in the hike-in campgrounds. Pets are also prohibited on all of the NPS-managed beaches along Tomales Bay. Please refer to our Pets pages to learn where you can bring your dog in the Seashore. Service Dogs The prohibition on dogs does not apply to working service dogs , which are allowed on trails, Tomales Bay beaches, and in public buildings. If you have a service dog, please be aware that ticks , poison oak , and wildlife are present in the park. The service animal must be harnessed, leashed (six-foot-long or shorter), or tethered (six-foot-long or shorter) unless these devices interfere with the service animal's work or the person's disability prevents use of these devices. In that case, the person must use voice, signal, or other effective means to maintain control of the animal. Keeping your dog on its leash will help you better ensure that it isn't coming into contact with poison oak or tick-infested vegetation, or at least know when it does. Bear Valley Visitor Center for information before setting out.-->

Drones Launching, landing, or operating a remotely operated aircraft (aka "remotely piloted aircraft," "unmanned aircraft," or "drone") from or on lands and waters administered by the National Park Service within the boundaries of Point Reyes National Seashore is prohibited. If you observe drone use in Point Reyes National Seashore, please call 415-464-5100 x2 x5 or contact staff at the nearest Visitor Center as soon as possible. If you observe drone use in other National Park Service areas or if you find photographs or videos online or elsewhere that were illegally taken within National Park Service areas from drones, you can report the violation to the National Park Service tip line at 888-653-0009 or by email . Glass Containers Possession of a glass container within 15 meters (50 feet) of any riverbank, lakeshore, or beach, or on the water, or in a vessel is prohibited. This restriction is necessary to reduce the amount of injurious trash in the park and for the protection of visitors who frequent these areas in bare feet.

Leave No Trace With increasing visitor use, both day and overnight, it is important to minimize our impacts and Leave No Trace of our visits to wilderness, parks, and other special places. Trips that include awareness and the use of minimum impact practices conserve natural conditions of the outdoors which make the adventure enjoyable and allow others the same experience. Your backcountry permit is a signed contract between you and the National Park Service. It's an agreement to treat these public lands with respect by practicing Leave No Trace (LNT) techniques. Keep in mind that Leave No Trace camping goes beyond following the rules; it requires thoughtful judgement for each situation that comes up. Leave No Trace Follow Leave No Trace principles. --> Disposal of Human Waste Use the toilets at the Bear Valley Visitor Center, Five Brooks, or Palomarin trailheads, or the Limantour Beach parking lot before starting your hike. Toilets are also available at Divide Meadow, in addition to at all four hike-in campgrounds. If one needs to urinate or defecate while traveling to a campground and there are no toilets nearby, urinate or defecate at least 60 meters (200 feet or 75 adult paces) from water, camp, or trails. Urinate in rocky places that won't be damaged by wildlife who dig for salts and minerals found in urine. Carry a small garden trowel or lightweight scoop for digging a cat hole in which to bury feces. Deposit human waste in cat holes dug 15–20 cm (6–8 inches) deep. Cover and disguise the cat hole when finished, or pack out solid waste. Use toilet paper sparingly and pack it out along with sanitary napkins, and tampons in an airtight container. Consider using natural "toilet paper" such as a smooth rock or soft pine cone. Campers at the hike-in campgrounds and at Marshall Beach and Tomales Beach are required to use the vault toilets at those locations for the disposal of human waste. Boaters must remove human waste from the park, unless they are camping on Marshall Beach or Tomales Beach. Disposing of human waste in the bay or onto park beaches is prohibited, so campers must bring portable toilets or limit camping to Marshall Beach and Tomales Beach, where vault toilets are available. Water Faucets and Disposal of Grey Water Water faucets are provided at the four hike-in campgrounds. Boat-in campers will need to bring in any fresh water they will need. The water from the faucets is usually potable, but campers should bring along some means of treating the water in case the campground's water treatment system fails, at which time signage would be posted at the water faucet to alert campers that the water is not potable. Do not wash dishes at water faucets. To wash your dishes, carry water at least 60 meters (200 feet or 75 adult paces) away from water sources, trails, and campsites, and use small amounts, if any, of biodegradable soap. Strain food scraps from wash water and pack them out. Scatter strained dishwater. Do not bathe at water faucets. To wash yourself, carry water at least 60 meters (200 feet or 75 adult paces) away from water sources, trails, and campsites, and use small amounts, if any, of biodegradable soap. Do not wash clothing at water faucets. Wait until you get home or to a laundromat. If it is absolutely necessary to wash clothing, carry water at least 60 meters (200 feet or 75 adult paces) away from water sources, trails, and campsites, and use small amounts, if any, of biodegradable soap. Scatter the grey water. Invasive Weeds To help control the spread of non-native plants, please: Start the day with clean shoes and gear by using a handheld boot brush to ensure there were no missed seeds or plant parts from your last adventure. Stay on marked and/or designated trails to keep invasive species populations localized for easier management and prevent introduction to new areas. Carry a hand held boot brush in your backpack or attached to gear for on-the-spot removals while on the trails. Clean your tent and hammocks before packing up by brushing off any plant parts, seeds, and dirt. Sweep out or shake out the interior of the tent prior to packing. When you return home setup tent, tarp, and hammocks to allow them to dry out and remove and remaining organic material. When youre adventure is done and before leaving the park, clea your: Footwear with a handheld boot brush. Clothes and gear by picking off seeds and burrs and brushing off extra dirt. More Information Visit our Exotic Invasive Plants page. Visit the PlayCleanGo® Stop Invasive Species In Your Tracks® campaign's website.

Food and Scented Items Storage Store your food and other scented items** properly in the food storage lockers provided at the campsite. There are no food storage lockers on the beaches of Tomales Bay so boat-in campers will need to bring their own portable bear-resistant food storage containers, i.e., bear canisters. While the food storage lockers prevent larger animals from getting properly stored food, mice can gain access into the lockers through small drain holes. Campers may wish to use steel wool to plug these holes during their stay. (Please remove the steel wool upon departure.) Or store food in light-weight hard plastic containers or in a bear canister within the food storage lockers. --> Do not leave any food or scented items unattended outside of the locker or stored in your tent. Raccoons, foxes, and skunks are plentiful and aggressive. And, since 2021, black bears appear to have decided to take up residence in Marin County, including Point Reyes. Do not feed wild animals. Keep the doors of the food storage lockers closed at all times, unless you are immediately in front of the locker. Be sure the doors are closed when you leave the campsite to keep animals from getting into the lockers and urinating, defecating, or building nests inside the lockers. Keep and leave a crumb clean campsite. ** Scented items may include, but are not limited to: soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes, toiletries, feminine products, lip balm, deodorant, sunscreen, mosquito repellent, gum, candy, first-aid kits, pots, pans, plates, bowls, cups, forks, spoons, knives, clothes in which one has cooked or eaten, and wash basins (i.e., the kitchen sink). As a general rule, if you put it in your mouth or on your skin or if food comes in contact with it, it should be stored in an bear-resistant food storage container. Fires and Fireworks Wood and charcoal fires are prohibited in the hike-in campgrounds. Only gas stoves or canned heat may be used for cooking at Coast, Glen, Sky, and Wildcat Campgrounds. Beach Fires Permits are required for beach fires in the park and can be acquired at the Bear Valley Visitor Center. Small fires made out of natural driftwood are only permitted on sandy beaches (below the high tide line, if possible). Downed wood above the beach's vegetation line may not be gathered and burned. Put fires out with water, not sand. Visit our Beach Fires page for more details. Charcoal Fires Since the charcoal grills were removed from the campgrounds in 2022, charcoal fires are now prohibited in the backcountry. Charcoal fires are prohibited at Sky Campground. Completely extinguish the briquettes before going to sleep or otherwise leaving the grill unattended. Please note: The grills in Coast, Wildcat, and Glen Campgrounds are scheduled to be removed in May 2022. Charcoal fires will be prohibited at these campgrounds after the grills have been removed.--> Fire Bans Visitors planning to cook food over a beach fire or barbecue briquettes should come prepared with an alternative means (e.g., self-contained gas stove) of cooking in the event of a Spare the Air Alert or high, very high or extreme fire danger . Fireworks Fireworks and other pyrotechnic/incendiary devices are prohibited. Weapons and Hunting All weapons (including, but not limited to, B-B guns, slingshots, bows and arrows, or any object capable of discharging a projectile—with the exception of firearms ), as well as weapons prohibited by the state, are prohibited. Hunting is prohibited. Quiet Hours Quiet hours are from sundown to sunrise. Respect your neighbors, the wilderness, and natural quiet. Check-out Campsites should be left clean. Do not leave anything behind. If garbage and recycling receptacles near the vault toilets are full, pack out your trash. Campers must vacate their campsite by noon on their day of departure, but are welcome to continue hiking and exploring the park after noon. Campers do not need to return to the Bear Valley Visitor Center in order to check out. Horses Maximum number of horses or pack animals in any campground is eight. Horses are not allowed at Glen Camp. Pack animals and horses must be tied to hitch rails. Multimedia: Campers, hikers, and other visitors to Point Reyes may find our Wilderness Videos page to be of interest. There we feature multiple videos about the Phillip Burton Wilderness and Leave No Trace® outdoor ethics. Top of Page

Contact Us To make, change, or cancel your camping reservations, log in to your Recreation.gov account, or call the Recreation.gov call center at 1-877-444-6777. Call center staff are available every day of the year from 7 am to 9 pm PT, except on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. If you have non-emergency, park-specific camping questions that cannot be answered by reviewing the content above or on our Boat-in Camping and Campgrounds pages, please send an email to our Camping Desk . Again, DO NOT email the Camping Desk to make, change, or cancel reservations; contact Recreation.gov . Top of Page

Glossary Backcountry campground: a campground into which campers hike, or ride a bicycle or a horse, or access by water vessels, as opposed to a campground into which they can drive their vehicles (which would be a frontcountry campground). Boat-in Camping: camping that requires the use of a kayak , canoe, small motorboat, small sailboat, or other small vessel to get to a beach along Tomales Bay where camping is permitted ; personal watercraft (e.g., jet skis) are prohibited on Tomales Bay. Camping permit: a document that grants a camper permission to camp on a specific night in a specific hike-in campsite or on one of the beaches on the west side of Tomales Bay north of Tomales Bay State Park's northern boundary. Camping permits issued by Point Reyes National Seashore must be obtained through Recreation.gov in advance or arrival. at the Bear Valley Visitor Center on the campers arrival date. The camper will then need to print their Recreation.gov confirmation email and be prepared to show it to park rangers on the trail and at your campsite or while boating and camping on a Tomales Bay beach. Parking pass/permit: a document that grants a camper permission to park their vehicle between the hours of midnight and 6 am at a trailhead managed by Point Reyes National Seashore. Place a printout of your email confirmation from Recreation.gov face up on the dashboard of each vehicle remaining overnight at park trailheads. Every vehicle parked between midnight and 6 am at a trailhead managed by Point Reyes National Seashore is required to have a parking pass. Citations will be issued to any vehicle without a printout of a confirmation email for a current reservation. Reservation: an arrangement between a camper and the park to have a specific campsite or permit held for the camper's use on a specific night. A potential camper can make a reservation through Recreation.gov from up to three months to the day in advance. Top of Page

Point Reyes National Seashore has four backcountry campgrounds. Camping is also permitted on some beaches along Tomales Bay's west side.