We Spent 24 Hours at Point Reyes National Seashore: Cypress Tree Tunnel, Lighthouse, Seals & More

continuing with our series of traveling California as a family today we're taking on an unforgettable adventure to point Rey's National Seashore get ready to explore the stunning Coastline vibrant wildlife and beautiful hiking trails on this 24-hour Adventure hopefully you enjoy this part of California as much as we do and let us know what we left off in the comments let's jump into it [Music] this video is part of a three-day trip exploring the poires National Seashore so we left our Airbnb in the morning and went to our favorite breakfast spot bovine Bakery what do you guys want a croissant or a cupcake okay I think we got a morning bun do you want to try that cinnamon roll and a croissant that's the Both Worlds hey what do you guys review this place yummy or yucky Jack what do you think yummy or yucky definitely four Yummies onto the next spot we left the town of Point Rey station for a 10 minute drive into the park to our first stop at the Shipwreck you got some rocks buddy yeah you're gonna throw it in the water yeah okay Jack out of the mud all right the boat's located behind the Inverness store and it's about a five minute walk to get out to it the owner was originally gonna fix it up but it never got around to it so it's just been sitting out here for the last decade it's awesome to explore and if the water level is slow you can actually walk out and walk all around it I've been here many times over the years and every time I visit it decays a little bit more so one of these days I'm gonna come and I'm sure it won't be here anymore we're potty training and sunny Peter Pan so gotta go back to the car but Jack and I are still here throwing rocks in the water we spent a good amount of time here as there's basically nothing better than throwing rocks in the water eventually it was time to leave and we headed further into the park for our next stop we drove all the way out to the end which is about a 35 minute drive from the Shipwreck there are two major things to do out here the hike to Chimney Rock and a visit to the lighthouse we're doing Chimney Rock first do you guys remember what the trail is called Mountain Rock Mountain remember it was called Chimney Rock once we got all the snacks and everything situated it was time to head out on the hike we've got a lot of heavier since the last time we did this [Music] a clouds wow where's the dragon's Edge you see me oh what tree buddy the hike to Chimney Rock is great for the whole family as it's about two miles round trip with 250 feet of elevation gain do note that if you do this hike with young children there are some areas that have really big drops so be sure to watch them if you let them run around after about a half mile you'll see the historic Point Rey's Lifeboat station that was built in 1927. yeah as we started to gain elevation the views looking back were amazing and we even saw a bunch of deer eventually the trail Crest is small hill and you walk down all the way to the end oh we lost one on the trail oh oh no I wasn't sleeping I was enjoying the trail how sunny once one's asleep and one wants to see every sign that we've passed unauthorized Trail dangerous cliffs it's from out here are stunning with a rock Arch below you and massive Cliffs on both sides if you look closely you can often see some seals playing on the beach below you as well we saw a really big one who was getting in the water to go for a swim Ming how many numbers out of ten do you give this hike [Music] wow Jack how many numbers do you give out of 10. 4 out of ten all right we'll try harder to get one that you like after hanging out and having some snacks for about 15 minutes we started the walk back to the car [Music] once you finish Chimney Rock if you're up for it and it's open head out to the historic lighthouse this is only about a five to ten minute drive from The Chimney Rock trailhead be sure to watch for deer along the side of the road as I've seen deer many of the times I've been out here this is also a stroller and wheelchair-friendly hike to the lighthouse overlooked before the stairs even if the lighthouse itself isn't open if you made the drive all the way to Chimney Rock you should probably just drive up here to see this Coastal View to me this is one of if not the best view in all of California the way the coastline stretches out in front of you is something you'll never forget [Music] the walk to the lighthouse is about a half mile and it's mostly uphill on the way there and downhill on the way back there's also some awesome trees that you can see and the lighthouse Visitor Center if it's open The Visitor Center is small but it has some fun things that children can interact with it's usually open the same time the lighthouse is open which is usually only Saturdays and Sundays from around 10 to 4. this changes seasonally though so be sure to check this before you drive all the way out to the lighthouse look at that that's a whale a whale skull guys as you make it around the bench you'll be at the Lighthouse Overlook and if it's open you can take the 300 stairs down to the lighthouse itself Jack are we heading down to the lighthouse all right going down going down inside the stairs don't seem like much on the way down and the views continue to get better as you descend but don't underestimate the stairs on the way back up when we got down to the base they were just opening the top of the lighthouse so that you could peek your head in and look at the glass this was really cool to see and I'm glad we caught it when it was open this is a pretty small area and there's not really a lot to do down here you can walk around the top of the lighthouse you can go inside of the small Museum that talks about what life was like as a keeper and you can walk around and just explore and take in the views then when you're ready you can start the long walk back up to the top there's even numbers on the stairs to tell you how many you have left as we ascended the coastal fog moved in and you could barely even see the lighthouse anymore as you hike up there are multiple areas where you can walk off to the side and sit down and relax for a few minutes before continuing on after making it back up to the top we couldn't even see the lighthouse anymore because of the coastal fog and we started the walk back to the car of course you have to take in that amazing view one more time before you continue on hey Sonny did you have fun hiking yeah yeah okay we're gonna go see the elephant seals now leaving the lighthouse behind it was about a 20 minute drive out to Drake's Beach and we even saw some elk along the way [Music] why should we see the elephant seal so we can just dance in the car during the winter they often closed the beach for elephant seal breeding and you can only look at them from a farm check Lucas says that there's 10 seals that are mailed 25 female and 43 for little baby seals when we were there the seals weren't very active but it is still cool to see these massive creatures just laying on the beach in front of you some of them were only five to ten feet from the viewing platform unfortunately non-moving seals don't hold a toddler's attention for very long from there we did the 35 minute drive back to Point Race station in the Airbnb that we were staying at it's not sponsored or anything but this Airbnb was awesome and it had a big outdoor area for the kids to play in I'll leave a link to it in the description everybody's awake from their late nap there's our Airbnb right there and we're heading out to do a few more things before we end our day in Point Raise next up Park Visitor Center if you have young children this Visitor Center is great as it has lots of different information about the animals that live here and it's relatively interactive and cool to look at after leaving The Visitor Center we headed to invertis Park Market to grab some sandwiches for our dinner picnic before heading into the park again and going to the cypress tree tunnel oh you're more excited about that sign than the tunnel okay [Music] yeah buddy walk through it look at you Jack [Music] oh Jack won the tree tunnel used to be one of my favorite spots as a photographer with all the beautiful views you can get especially at Sunset now it's one of my favorite spots as a parent as well my kids had a blast running all the way down to the other end of the tunnel if you're looking to visit here you have to park on the side of the road and then walk in this place never gets less cool and the children are just as excited as I am about it which even makes it better we only had one scrape at the end of the tunnel you can see the old kph Maritime radio receiving station but it's only open a couple times a month leaving the cypress tree tunnel we drove eight minutes to North Beach one of my favorite beaches for Sunset and Point Raise we got there with about 25 minutes to spare and we made our way down to the beach put out our blanket and just sat and enjoyed the big waves with our sandwiches this is a pretty sweet spot to end our video we got our food and we got this awesome sunset [Music] we kept it simple and grabbed some french fries a bean and cheese burrito for the kids and two sandwiches the market really does make amazing sandwiches and I'm partial to the Reuben I mean I don't think I could have asked for a better way to spend our last 20 minutes of our time and Point Race hopefully this encouraged you to come out and explore this beautiful part of California let me know what you think in the comments and we will see you on the next video [Music]

Channel: California Through My Lens

Views: 40,086

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Id: GHiW7qVCsdM

Length: 11min 19sec (679 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 23 2023