Follow the wildlife to Point Reyes Seashore

Winter is peak season for birds at Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco. Drakes Estero, a multi-fingered bay, is patrolled by canvasback, ruddy and American wigeon ducks. Great blue herons, willets, godwits and other shorebirds feed along the mudflats. Scores of white pelicans visit annually near the mouth of the bay.

Bring your field glasses and you also can watch for harbor seals and sea lions swimming nearby and deer browsing the headlands. Herefords and Black Angus graze here too. Ranches thrived in these parts, and beginning in the 1850s schooners maneuvered into Drakes Estero, took on cargoes of fine butter and delivered them to San Francisco.

These days one of the best reasons to visit is Bull Point Trail, which traverses a wide headland between two fingers of Drakes Estero called Schooner and Creamery bays. The mostly level path, an old farm road, crosses a grassy landscape near all of this wildlife.

To get there, follow Highway 1 to Olema, turn west on Bear Valley Road and drive 2 1/4 miles to Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, where you turn left. Drive almost 11 miles to the signed parking area on the left side of the road.

For the first 100 yards or so, Bull Point Trail is trampled by cows and a bit hard to follow, but soon it improves. Nearing the water, you’ll see Schooner Bay to your left and Creamery Bay to the right. Those poles thrusting up from Schooner Bay belong to oyster farmers.

Hikers also can pair Bull Point Trail with Estero Trail, an eight-mile round-trip trek with a 500-foot elevation gain. Estero Trail is the popular, classic approach to the wildlife-rich estuary and one of my favorite coastal trails.

*

See more of John McKinney’s tips at www.thetrailmaster.com.