Johnson Gulch

Bodega Bay was to be our base for visiting Point Reyes seashore park. We stayed at Bodega Dunes state campground for four days. The town is very picturesque and there are a couple of restaurants/bars overlooking the bay. We had drinks in some over our short stay here, but not the food as was quite pricey. Our first visit down to Point Reyes and the weather was very overcast, we chatted with the guy in the visitor centre and decided to head to Limantour beach. Visibility was poor, but the walk was very quiet and peaceful and we enjoyed a fascinating game of throw the tennis ball in the sea and watch it wash back in again... In the evening we drove down to the local bar and a couple started chatting with us, turned out he was a captain of a boat and said he would leave us a crab behind the bar for the following evening. The next day we headed back to Point Reyes because we wanted to visit the lighthouse. The drive up to the lighthouse was long, but with a beautiful clear day we got views along Reyes beach to the north. We saw lots of deer roaming the headlands around the lighthouse. After an hour or so we headed along to the Chimney Rock trail, but first we had to check out Elephant Seal lookout and this has to be one of the highlights of the US west coast. We spent around half hour watching the elephant seals swimming, sleeping, play fighting and messing about on the beach. We also saw a pelican and turkey vultures, but we saw the latter all the way down the California coast. When we eventually got to the end of the Chimney trail, we could just about see the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. While looking at the gate a huge helicopter came over the cliff and pulled a wrecked speed boat out of the sea, what a sight that was. Tiredness was coming so we decided to head north again, but we really fancied a beer and heard the town of Point Reyes was cool. We sat down at the bar/saloon. The barman puts an amber beer in front of Maddie and an IPA beer in front of me and says 'Charles had that one and Camilla had that one' for a few moments I thought, hmm what! Then Maddie said 'he's not wrong, look up there' I looked up and saw three photos of Prince Charles and Camilla on a visit in 2005 to the bar. Was really cool. We drank up and headed back up to Bodega to get our crab, only to find the place closed for a private function! Very annoying. Eventually it was time to hit the road again and head to San Francisco!Read more