The Point Reyes Lighthouse and National Seashore

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

Among the wild diversity of California's lighthouses, the Pt Reyes Light deserves special mention.  

Though off the beaten track north of San Francisco, via the winding Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1), visiting the Point Reyes Light is well worth the trip.

The Light has reasonable open hours...

Approaching the light, while driving through the Point Reyes National Seashore Area, has some awesome views of the land, sea, and animals of the Pt Reyes National Seashore.

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Reaching the lighthouse is the final challenge.  The warning sign cannot be any clearer; you are about to undertake a climb up and down stairs equivalent to those of a thirty story building.

And what do those stairs look like?

More photos of the actual Point Reyes Lighthouse can be found at Dalmdad Landscape Photography's Point Reyes Light Page.

One last point...If you happen to be going from the Point Reyes area to Napa, you will pass through the very quaint town of Inverness.  Portions of the original version of the movie, The Fog, were filmed here.  Here are a few captures from the town.

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Over the Mountain ... (Part 7 of 7): Coming down and merging with the PCH

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

Nacimiento-Fergguson Road (NFR), heading down to the Pacific Ocean: The last bits of the NFR experience are downhill from the high-country of the Santa Lucia Range to sea level at the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH, CA-1) in rugged Big Sur country.

Views towards the Pacific Ocean from the high-country

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Views of the coastal parks, as NFR winds its way down to sea level.

PCH heading north towards Carmel along Big Sur Coast

PCH heading south towards Cambria along Big Sur Coast

Looking down on PCH

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When you reach the Pacific Ocean, you can either head south towards the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Preserve and Cambria or north towards Big Sur, Carmel, and Monterey.

A recommendation would to head south just a little bit to the town of Gorda, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  A wonderful restaurant, the Whale Watcher Cafe, is waiting for you.


Though the Whale Watcher gets some pretty awful reviews at yelp, we never had a bad experience there.  Indeed, this was one of the first places we ate at when we drove cross-country for the first time.  Yes, the prices are steep, but this is a very remote location and we never left feeling we were extorted.  The burgers and the nachos are great and can be eaten while looking out for passing whales.

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