Point Reyes Lighthouse, Point Reyes National Seashore

December 23, 2013

Miles: 1.3
Time: 1 hour 17 minutes

Parking: The lighthouse is not open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays. I assume you can still go to the lookout above the lighthouse though. On winter weekends/holidays, I believe you have to take a shuttle bus to the lighthouse, because of the crowds of people going to see the whale migration. We went on a winter weekday shortly before sunset, and had no problems with parking.

Rest rooms: In the parking area.

Map: Point Reyes National Seashore
Hike directions: Visitor Centers

Hike description: There is a short walk from the parking lot to a lookout over the ocean. There is an optional climb down several flights of stairs to the lighthouse. At a certain point (around 4:00 the day we were there), they shut the gate for the climb down the stairs to the light house. There is still a good view if you decide not to go down the stairs. In the winter, this is a prime spot for viewing grey whales. We saw a handful of them. Binoculars would be recommended to get a closer view. We did see a lot of spouting. This is also a nice spot to watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.

Year to date miles:  402.3

We had time after our trip to Arch Rock, so we decided to stop by the lighthouse.

It isn't really a hike, but just a short walk. We could see whale spouts on our way.

We decided to stay and watch the sunset over the Pacific. The drive back in the dark was a bit crazy!

It was hard to capture the whales....this is just the ocean. You never know when they will come up and spout, but we did see at least a couple dozen spouts in an hour.

We decided not to take the stairs all the way down to the light house.
We were pretty beat by then, and they were just locking the gates to stop allowing people to start their descent down them.