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Point Reyes National Seashore
A fog-wrapped peninsula riding the Pacific Plate north of San Francisco
Point Reyes is on its way to Alaska. The peninsula sits on the Pacific Plate, separated from the rest of California by the San Andreas Fault, which runs up Tomales Bay and Olema Valley. In the 1906 earthquake the ground here lurched about 18 feet (5.5 m) northwest in a moment, a shift marked today along the Earthquake Trail. Point Reyes National Seashore, established in 1962, protects about 71,000 acres (287 km²) of the peninsula, from wave-beaten headlands and long beaches to Douglas fir forest, about an hour's drive from San Francisco.
The Coast Miwok lived here for thousands of years, and in 1579 Francis Drake probably careened the Golden Hind on the peninsula's shore. The Point Reyes Lighthouse, first lit in 1870, guided ships through some of the foggiest, windiest conditions on the Pacific coast for 105 years. Gray whales pass the point from December through May, elephant seals breed on its beaches, and tule elk, reintroduced in 1978, roam the grasslands of Tomales Point. Dairy and beef ranches have operated here since the 1850s, and a 2025 agreement to phase out most of them has faced congressional and legal challenges.