Point Reyes.

At the end of March I hired a car from Zipcar and went for a drive. Here's the map of my travels.
I started at the Caltrain station in San Francisco (A) and drove north. After wandering around the Marin headlands (B) to get used to the car, I headed for some lunch at Hog Island oyster farm (C).

It wasn't a very good day, overcast with some rain.


The bridge and San Francisco from the Marin Headlands.


I think these are turkeys, not sure if they are wild or not.


The houses next to Hog Island oyster farm.


The car. ;)


The weather cleard up a bit by the time I got to Point Reyes (D).


There were lots of little inlets and gullies on the point. And cows.


The surf beach on the west side, nothing to the left until you hit Japan.


I was dismayed to see the hill next to the light house keepers hut covered in concrete, until I read the sign and worked out that this was the only way to get fresh water.


The point was made up of a very interesting conglomerate.




And there was a Gray whale skull.


There was 302 steps down to the actual lighthouse. Imagine having to climb these in the middle of the night, in a storm every 2 hours to wind the clockwork to make the light go around.


There were a number of tourists on the lighthouse.


The clockwork mechanism. The fans on top are used to regulate the speed of the shaft and there was a weight behind me that connected to the cable down the bottom to power it.


The new light on top of the old foghorn shed.


The old foghorns, the end was about half a metre across.


They have numbered the steps, but only so you can see them on the way up.


I drove up the highest point on the Peninsula and had a good view of Tomales bay, you can see Hog Island on the very left of the water.


I spotted a very cool looking mushroom on the side of the road.




Lookng back at Point Reyes, the lighthouse is over the hump in the middle.


The boatshack, just past Hog Island oyster farm


The sun came out as I headed inland towards Petaluma.


There was some flooding in the fields.


After a quick dinner at Wholefoods in Petaluma, I drove back towards San Francisco and went up Mt. Tamalpais, where I caught a stormy sunset.


It was a misty blue look back at the city. The bridge is to the right.


I went back to the lookout on Marin headland and took a reasonably good phot of the bridge. It was handheld and would have been better if I had my tripod.


I then took the car back to it's spot and went home on the train.