We drove back to the crossroads from the Point Reyes Lighthouse and turned right to head down to the parking lot for the Chimney Rock trail, the sea lion overview and the Lifeboat Station. These are sea lion pups mostly, old enough to be weaned and now the mother has left to mate, get pregnant and head northward for the summer. Next year she will return with a new brood of sea lions and the cycle will repeat itself. These pups are merely sunning themselves here but are in the process of learning how to swim, find food and navigate on their own. In this picture, we think that the large one in the lower right hand is a male bull, the small ones are pups and the mid-sized ones are females that haven’t left yet. But, you know, we really don’t have a clue.
Actually, the first Lifeboat Station was built on the Pacific side of Point Reyes but in the first 5 years of operation, they lost 4 men because the weather and ocean conditions were so brutal. The men would walk the beach in 4-hour shifts watching for shipwrecks and people who would need rescue from the frigid waters and powerful currents.
The second Lifeboat Station was built on the bay side of Point Reyes in 1927 and was active until 1968. On the route to this Lifeboat Station, we read a plaque which told of the dramatic rescues that the men here had accomplished. Now, we expected the stories of people rescued from ships that floundered in the waters but were surprised to see that one rescue was of a DC-3.
The Lifeboat Station is open for tours with a docent on the weekends but not today.
Next we headed out to Chimney Rock on the southeastern most point of Point Reyes. We saw some beautiful wildflowers in bloom but heard that this is just the beginning of the wildflower blooms.
These signs are all over along the edge of the cliffs. We know about the sand cliffs of California since we have seen them first hand in Pacifica, south of San Francisco, where we camped the last time we were in this area.
Towards the end, the trail makes a loop.
And, here is Chimney Rock - the small rock at the bottom of the cliff with the cut in it. Well, maybe that’s Chimney Rock, there were no signs so we just assumed that this was it because it is a most stunning arched rock.
But the view was tremendous and we sat for a while on a conveniently placed bench. Both of us remarked that this reminded us of England and the White Cliffs of Dover and the cliffs we walked along when we were in the southern part of England.
We saw no one while we were walking out and sitting but several groups as we were heading back.
We still had some time left in our day so we headed to Drakes Beach, where Sir Francis Drake landed to make repairs to his ship before he headed across the Pacific Ocean to finish his round-the-world voyage. Drake began his voyage from Plymouth, England in 1577 with 5 small ships. After his fleet rounded South America, a storm scattered the ships and he and his ship, the Golden Hind, sailed on alone. They were after Spanish gold and plundered several places along the South American coast, from one ship getting 26 tons of silver, 13 chests of silver coins and 80 pounds of gold and jewels, in total more than Queen Elizabeth’s annual tax revenues. Many admitted that Drake treated his captives well and often released them with gifts, an unusual practice for the times.
His ship was overloaded and leaking and he stopped in Point Reyes bay to make repairs since the 2-month voyage across the Pacific was treacherous. He finally arrived back in England in on September 26, 1580, almost 3 years after he had set sail.
He also claimed the land in Point Reyes for England and named it Nova Albion. We wondered what the Miwok natives thought about someone else claiming and naming the land where they had lived for thousands of years - but obviously that was typical of European voyages. Here’s a picture of what it might have looked like when he was making his repairs.
Huge parking lot here but then this is Drake’s Beach and probably full during the summer when people are looking for an ocean to play in. Today, as it grew later and colder and foggier in the day, there were few around. As we left we found this elk herd
and also this cattle herd heading home for dinner.
There are widely scattered farms throughout the peninsula and we wondered how they got supplies or what they did when they ran out of milk. Well, milk means a long trip to town but we did find a UPS truck making a delivery to a farmhouse. He probably took all day to deliver packages on this peninsula. We talked to a Ranger in Big Bend National Park in Texas which is similarly remote and she said that they ordered from Amazon since they delivered.
We also found this bus making the evening run through the peninsula. Note how few homes there are on the rolling hills in the background.
Fun day on the tip of Point Reyes National Seashore. The next time we come here we will take the Earthquake Trail since Point Reyes was formed by the San Andreas fault. But that is sometime in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment