Route: Point Reyes Loop (CA)

Submitted by Devin Higgins on Sun, 03/20/2022 - 08:55am
Location
California, US
Distance
36.39 mi
Vertical Gain
6,909 ft
Description

Point Reyes National Seashore is beautiful to say the least. The park is home to dense forest, coastal grasslands, Tule Elk and expansive views of undeveloped coastline. The trails are 99% well groomed single and double track. Some very short section (less than 0.1 mile) are over grown with ankle high grass but navigation was not an issue. 

Route

This route was first established running counter clockwise from Bear Valley Visitors Center. The route is easily accessed from multiple points along highway 1 or at various trailheads within the park. The Bear Valley Visitors Center has the most facilities. The route was chosen to follow the trail systems' outer perimeter and avoid road travel. The .gpx file and map will provide turn by turn details on each trail junction. Here are a few key point to keep in mind.

   - Ocean Lake Trail, this trail is a short bypass from the Coast Trail. The trail is just south of Wildcat Campground or just north of Alamere Falls depending or your direction of travel. Make sure you don't miss the turn off.

   - Rift Zone Trail south of Bear Valley Visitors Center. The trail enters a cow pasture through cattle gates and follows a double track across the pasture. The gates are easily opened, you will not need to hop any fences. 

   - Horse Camp as the name suggest is a popular spot to ride horses. Careful not to scare them. 

Water

Potable water is available year round at Coast Camp and Wildcat campground. You also cross Pine Gulch stream located at the southern end of Olema Valley Trail. 

GPS Track

Comments

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Profile picture for user trailpsyche

FKT unsupported attempt on December 9th. Excited to give it a go. Thanks for establishing it, Devin. 

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Profile picture for user Tyler Lopez

It was a doozy out there, Devin! Great route and looking forward to going back when the trail is in better condition! 

I'm going on a training run along this route tomorrow! No explicit goal to nab the FKT, but it might happen 🤞

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Profile picture for user Alissa

I plan to give this a go this week. Point Reyes has some of my favorite trails. 

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Profile picture for user michael-park

This looks like a beautiful route! I'm going to attempt the supported FKT tomorrowÂ