Point Reyes 2-21-2011

 I've been waiting for this day off for a while. I've been reading about whale watching and trying to research good places to see whales (that also included hiking) and found two candidates: the Chimney Rock Trail in Point Reyes and the Owl Trail near Muir Beach. They were both really short hikes, so I thought we'd just do both of them. Chimney Rock was first.

When we got out of the car, we saw the signage below. You could see elephant seals right from the parking lot (although they were a ways out, so I didn't take any pictures), but a wildlife sighting from the parking lot was a good start to the day.

The trail in the back is the Chimney Rock Trail

The two signs below were to the left of the elephant seal lookout and historic life boat station sign above. I thought they were really interesting.

 

Meghan was a little wacky this morning. She was running ahead of us right from the start of the hike. we sent Lennon ahead to keep an eye on her.

Here's Meghan keeping an eye on us

Nanna supplied us with a few pairs of binoculars,

This is a picture looking back at the start of the trailhead. The parking lot  and trailhead are on the other side of the trees.

I was falling behind because I was scanning the horizon for whales. Although I was unsuccessful at spotting whales, the kids spotted something else.

The pointing arm was a sign.

what are they looking at?

good thing we had binoculars

This is what they were looking at. Still not sure? Wait for the zoomed in picture.

Now I get why they call them elephant seals.

A little further down, the trail came to its end where there were a couple benches and a good place to look out over the water. There were a few people with big telephoto lenses and spotting scopes.

Pretty serious drop off. This is the view from the opposite side of the elephant seals. There was a wooden railing. The rock formation apparently is Chimney Rock.

Cool rock formation

Another cool rock formation. There are a bunch of cormorants on the left side, but I don't have a cool telephoto lens.

Rachel and Nanna enjoying the view

another shot of the elephant seals

The Historic Lifeboat station. I was very impressed with the stories I read on the plaques above.

On the other side of these trees is the parking lot and trailhead as well as some buildings.

Chimney Rock is near the Point Reyes Lighthouse, which is also supposed to be a great place to see whales, so because we were close by, and because we hadn't seen any whales yet, we decided to head on over.

cool rock formation

another cool rock formation

when we got to the viewing area before the stairs down to the lighthouse, a volunteer kind of guy told Meghan and I (everyone else was still in the little shop/visitor's center) that a juvenile gray whale had been hanging out around the rock pictured below. Within a couple minutes, I saw it surface and spout, but Meghan didn't. Then when everyone else made it, I told them and we waited to see it again. But we didn't. The kids were short on patience, so I took them down to the lighthouse while Rachel and Nanna kept waiting.

308 steps to the lighthouse.

up 308 steps

another shot of where the whale was. The rock on the top left was where it had been hanging around.

I saw the whale spout again as we were climbing up the steps, but the kids didn't. we went back to the lookout area and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. Actually, the kids waited more than I did, because I saw it about 3 more times, but they kept missing it. It really didn't show too much of itself or stay up very long. The kids were starting to really get impatient and frustrated, so we said we'd wait 5 more minutes and then go home. With two minutes to go, the whale came up for the longest time and spouted about 3 or 4 times, and the kids saw it, and I got a picture of it . . . kind of. The kids learned a lesson on perseverance.

Thar she blows! Middle left. (enlarge the picture)

We also saw some deer

Meghan decided to attempt enlightenment. She chose a good place.

Abby needed a picture of the ocean for her California Project.

We had been taking our sweet time, enjoying the day, so we decided we wouldn't have time for the Owl Trail. Instead, we made our way to Cordelia and tried Straw Hat pizza.