Point Reyes: The Complete Guide to the National Seashore & Surrounding Area

By Jessica Lage

Book Overview

Only 30 miles from San Francisco, Point Reyes National Seashore attracts admirers year-round to its forests, wetlands, and beaches. Visitors come to this tranquil place to hike, camp, backpack, bike, kayak, horseback ride, picnic, fish, and nature-watch. This invaluable resource gives detailed information on the trails, roads, camps, and and beaches within the Seashore, plus surrounding parks and preserves. Point Reyes: The Complete Guide to the National Seashore & Surrounding Area has much more than coverage of all the popular recreational activities and hiking trails.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0899973507
• ISBN13: 9780899973500
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Wilderness Press
• Length: 249 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.2" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good book for hikes in the park

Does a really excellent job of giving information about hikes in the park, including categorizing them according to such criteria as "good for first time trips" and "hikes for a foggy day: to escape the fog and to revel in the fog." Also does include a few hikes in the surrounding state parks. On the downside, description of hiking and other outdoors activity is the only topic in the book, and there's no mention of places to stay, the little towns in the area, restaurants, et c. While obviously that info goes out of date faster than description of hiking trails, it would still be nice to have at least a brief mention of the towns and a list of restaurants and lodgings.

An Excellent Travel Guide

Every time I visit Point Reyes I am absolutely amazed at how rural and isolated this area feels compared to the sprawling Bay Area metropolis just 45 minutes or so away. Point Reyes has it all: year round recreation, lots of marine and land animals, beautiful flower displays, historic ranches, and a wonderful guidebook by Jessica Lage. I've visited the National Seashore on three separate occasions and am planning a fourth vacation there this summer. This book will be my resource for planning that trip. When I buy I travel guides, the first thing I look for is outdoor recreation, particularly hiking. Lage's book provides an excellent selection of hikes on the Park's 140 miles of trail. She gives detailed route descriptions for 32 trails within the Park boundaries and additional backpacking options. Large topographical maps accompany the text. But what makes this guidebook so much more impressive than similar volumes from Wilderness Press is the attention that Lage devotes to other wonderful experiences at Point Reyes. Epicureans will enjoy the listings of ranches and farmer's markets where tourists can sample homemade cheeses, butter, and organic produce as well as local oysters from Tomales Bay. Those interested in watersports will find the list of kayak rental companies and the fishing information invaluable. Wildlife observers will appreciate Lage's descriptions of where (and when) to view the Tule Elk, the Coho Salmon and Steelhead runs, and whale watching. Lage also discusses the best seasons for wildflower walks and bird watching. In addition to recreation, Lage devotes two chapters to human and natural history. In these chapters we learn that the peninsula was at one time part of Monterey Bay, but it has moved northward with the San Andreas fault. Because of its unique location (it is near the northernmost range of the sage-shrub plant community and southernmost Douglas Fir forest belt) it has a wide variety of plants and animals. Lage also details the lives of Native Americans who lived on the Peninsula and the origin of the region's famous dairy industry. Finally, she describes the effects of the famous 1906 earthquake that was centered in Point Reyes. In all this is a wonderful guidebook. If you are planning to explore Point Reyes or the surrounding region, including Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Audabon property at Bolinas Lagoon, or Samuel Taylor State Park (which has a wonderful Redwood forest, about the only thing missing from Point Reyes) then this is the book to get. The joy I had reading it more than repaid the price I spent on the book at the Park Service Visitor Center.

Everything you want to know on a Point Reyes visit

This is not an ordinary guidebook. The author's thorough knowledge and appreciation of the magnificent Point Reyes seashore shows on every page. Any visitor to the rural/wilderness parkland just north of urban San Francisco will appreciate the information about the rich natural and human history of Point Reyes and the current art and food scene which has grown up around the seashore. Plus clearly written guides to every hike imaginable in the seashore and surrounds, as well as information about hiking, biking, horseback riding, and kayaking.