Hike: Palomarin to Alamere Falls (7.5 miles)

We're fortunate in the bay area to have amazing natural environments right at our door step, and there are tons of hikes and nature walks available to explore all kinds of different terrain. Today's hike was a 7.5 mile out and back through the Point Reyes reserve, terminating in a waterfall pouring into the Pacific Ocean.

Bay Area Hiker has a good write up on this hike, which starts at the Palomarin trailhead, in the Point Reyes National Seashore. Point Reyes is a really interesting nature reserve, with lots of diverse ecosystems. The Point Reyes promontory has been migrating north over the last millions of years-- it used to be directly off the Monterey bay coast-- and the movement is somehow related to the San Andreas Fault, which separates the point from the coastal mainland. I wonder if this accounts for some of the diversity of the landscape.


The hike follows the California Coastal Trail, and skirts several interesting coastal lakes before arriving at a junction with an unmaintained trail out to Alamere Falls, a nice tidefall. To get down to where the cascades hit the beach, there are a couple of pretty tricky scambles. I did the first one without any problem but then chickened out on the second. That's ok, even from the plateau 40 feet above the beach, the waterfall and scenery were really beautiful.

Round trip the hike took about 4 hours, including a significant break to allow for frolic time at the beach.