Bear Valley - Point Reyes National Seashore

We visited Point Reyes National Seashore on the final day of August, 2013.  Our first stop was the Bear Valley Visitor Center.  Inside the center is an auditorium that doubles as a theater, a variety of exhibits in the museum, a bookstore and an information desk.  We watched another excellent film produced by the park service.  This fifteen minute orientation video is entitled "Point Reyes: The Point of Kings".

Bear Valley Visitor Center

Parking was at a premium at Bear Valley on Labor Day weekend

We attended part of a ranger-led walk along the 0.6 mile, paved Earthquake Trail that forms a loop near the visitor center.  Ranger Chris was very knowledgeable of the geology, geography and cultural history of the area.  Due to time constraints, we couldn't stay for all of his 75 minute walk.  One of the geographic oddities mentioned by Ranger Chris was that the northwest flowing Olema Creek parallels the southeast flowing Pine Gulch Creek along the same valley in the southern section of the park.  At one time, the headwaters of these two creeks would not have overlapped, but as the Point Reyes landform continues to slide to the north compared to the Bolinas Ridge, Pine Gulch Creek extends further north as well and now overlaps a section of Olema Creek.

Land shift from the 1906 earthquake

Another view of the land shift

California Bay Laurel

There was an artists' reception at the Red Barn that was open to all visitors one of the days we were at the seashore.  The exhibit was "BayWood Artists Paint Point Reyes".  Photography wasn't allowed, so I followed the blue posts that mark the fault line that moved during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  Note that it went right through the barn.

Blue posts mark the 1906 fault line through the Red Barn

There is no entrance fee to visit Point Reyes National Seashore.

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/pore/index.htm.