June 24, 2021

Chimney Rock Hike at Point Reyes National Seashore

hikers:  Mark and Lecia

distance:  1.7 miles out and back

difficulty: easy since it is short and pretty flat.

The Chimney Rock hike is the short line marked in yellow.  It was about a 45 minute drive from the visitor center and the trail sits on the very eastern point of Point Reyes. It's quite remote but there is a house near the trailhead!  There are some ranches in that area of Point Reyes.  

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You don't get lost on this trail although there are opportunities to stray as you will see later.

The historic Chimney Rock lifeboat station as seen from the trail above, since we didn't walk down there.  

There are a lot of trails that leave the main trail and go closer to the edge of the cliffs above the ocean.  We saw people on some of these trails.  

They are all marked with a sign that declares they are unauthorized trails.  They obviously feel a need to put up warning signs.  hmmm. 

These are the kinds of view of the ocean you get from this peninsula.

Some kind of survey marker.

You can see that it was windy up on this peninsula above the ocean.

The view at the tip!

One really cool thing about this hike was the wildlife we saw.  Mark heard an owl and we were able to spot him in some trees.  There aren't many trees on most of the hike but there several near the house I mentioned earlier.  

I have never seen an owl in the wild and it was quite amazing!

Not too far from the Chimney Rock parking lot is a trail that goes to  a colony or community, whatever it is you call a lot of elephant seals!  The trail was closed this time of year, but we were able to see them from a distance.  Some other tourists pointed them out to us or we might have missed them.  This photo is really zoomed in .  If you watched closely you could see them moving and then you knew it wasn't just rocks!