---
title: "California Dreaming: Point Reyes National Seashore"
site: "The Quiet Vacationer"
site_url: https://quietvacationer.com/
url: https://quietvacationer.com/2026/09/10/california-dreaming-point-reyes-national-seashore/
date_published: 2026-09-10
date_modified: 2026-09-07
author: "The Quiet Vacationer"
categories:
  - "Trip Reports"
tags:
  - "United States"
---

# California Dreaming: Point Reyes National Seashore

This is the second part of a two-part report from our May 2026 trip to San Francisco. The previous day took us south along Highway 1 to Bixby Creek Bridge. The next morning, we picked up another rental car and drove north across the Golden Gate Bridge towards Point Reyes National Seashore.

We had originally looked at Muir Woods, but it was full when we checked on the day itself. We were searching for other day trips from San Francisco when Point Reyes came up. I personally like visiting national parks in the United States, and since it was my colleague’s first time, we decided that another road trip would be fun. It turned out to be a pretty good decision.

## Collecting the car in Union Square

We started at the Alamo car rental location in Union Square, in the same building where Hertz operates. We had booked a Standard Elite SUV, four-door and automatic, for US$87.29. There were cheaper options available when we first looked, but we decided to choose a more premium car just for fun, because why not?

The only car available when we arrived was a Mercedes-Benz GLS450. We had booked a Standard Elite SUV, but Alamo gave us a Luxury Elite SUV instead. We got lucky. The GLS450 was a very premium car for a day trip, especially since we had booked something lower down the list.

![Car rental garage in San Francisco](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-1.jpg)
*Car rental garage in San Francisco*

## Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge

From Union Square, we drove along Turk Street and through the Tenderloin towards the Bay Area hills, then carried on along US-101 towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

![Driving down a San Francisco street towards the Bay Area hills](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-2.jpg)
*Driving down a San Francisco street towards the Bay Area hills*

It was my first time driving across the bridge. I had seen it plenty of times from the city and from other cars, but being behind the wheel made me pay more attention to the red towers and the cables overhead. The crossing was free in the direction we were travelling. A few unusual, almost Beetle-like cars were also out on the road, which gave us something else to look at while we were trying to stay in the right lane.

![Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge through San Francisco](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-3.jpg)
*Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge through San Francisco*

![Golden Gate Bridge visible from the approach road](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-4.jpg)
*Golden Gate Bridge visible from the approach road*

![Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-5.jpg)
*Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge*

## San Anselmo and the road to Point Reyes

We passed through San Anselmo and stopped at a traffic light for a while beside a street demonstration before the midterm elections. There were California and American flags, people holding signs and cars moving through the junction around them. As a foreigner, I found it interesting to watch. We hadn’t expected to see anything like it on the way to Point Reyes.

![Street demonstration with California and American flags](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-6.jpg)
*Street demonstration with California and American flags*

After San Anselmo, the route became much more wooded. The roads climbed through forested areas, and the view changed from San Francisco streets and Bay Area traffic to a quieter drive towards the coast.

![Tree-lined road through the forest on the way to Point Reyes](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-7.jpg)
*Tree-lined road through the forest on the way to Point Reyes*

## The Point Reyes visitor centre

Our first proper stop was the Bear Valley Visitor Center at Point Reyes National Seashore. There is a small museum inside, along with information about the park and the wildlife living around the peninsula. The [National Park Service visitor centre page](https://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/visitorcenters.htm) is worth checking before a visit because the different visitor centres and the lighthouse area do not all have the same opening days.

![Visitor centre at Point Reyes National Seashore](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-8.jpg)
*Visitor centre at Point Reyes National Seashore*

The park rangers were helpful. They gave us a map, explained what wildlife we might see and suggested places we could drive to without turning the day into a hiking trip. That was useful because Point Reyes covers a large area, and we had only one day to see it. We could decide how far to continue after getting a better idea of the roads and the distances involved.

![Point Reyes National Seashore entrance sign](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-9.jpg)
*Point Reyes National Seashore entrance sign*

## The Cypress Tree Tunnel and the KPH radio station

From the visitor centre, we continued towards the lighthouse and stopped at the Cypress Tree Tunnel. The trees lead to the former Point Reyes receiving station, the historic KPH Maritime Radio Receiving Station.

The [National Park Service explains the history of the Cypress Tree Tunnel](https://www.nps.gov/places/point-reyes-cypress-tree-tunnel.htm). The Monterey cypress trees were planted around 1930, while the white Art Deco-style station at the end of the tunnel was built between 1929 and 1931. For much of the twentieth century, KPH handled ship-to-shore communications from the Point Reyes coast. The station was decommissioned in 1999, and the National Park Service later acquired the property with the Maritime Radio Historical Society helping to preserve it.

The tunnel is easy to photograph, but the building is what made me want to stop. This was where messages were passed between the shore and ships in the Pacific, long before most visitors arrived with a phone camera and a map of the wildlife sightings.

![Cypress-lined path at Point Reyes National Seashore](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-10.jpg)
*Cypress-lined path at Point Reyes National Seashore*

![The Historic KPH Maritime Radio Receiving Station at Point Reyes National Seashore](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-11.jpg)
*The Historic KPH Maritime Radio Receiving Station at Point Reyes National Seashore*

## The Point Reyes Lighthouse area

By the time we reached the national seashore’s lighthouse area, parking was a problem. The main car park was extremely full, so we had to leave the Mercedes about five minutes away and walk. There wasn’t much choice. This was not the sort of place where we could circle around and expect a space to appear a few minutes later.

![Coastline and long sandy beach seen from Point Reyes](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-12.jpg)
*Coastline and long sandy beach seen from Point Reyes*

![Lost Birds of Point Reyes interpretive sign by the coast](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-13.jpg)
*Lost Birds of Point Reyes interpretive sign by the coast*

We walked past the National Park Service buildings towards the small Point Reyes Lighthouse Visitor Center. The [visitor centre includes exhibits about the lighthouse and the ocean](https://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/lighthouse.htm), and one of the displays has a Fresnel lens. The building is small enough that we did not spend the entire afternoon inside, but it gave us some context before we went back outside to look at the coast.

![Fresnel lens in the Point Reyes Lighthouse visitor exhibit](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-14.jpg)
*Fresnel lens in the Point Reyes Lighthouse visitor exhibit*

From the nearby vista point, a park ranger told us about the seals on the rocks and the crabs around the shoreline. They were far enough away that I needed to use 8x zoom to get a photograph that showed anything useful. The camera produced a record of the wildlife, but it did not make the animals feel any closer in person.

![Waves breaking around a rocky outcrop at Point Reyes](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-15.jpg)
*Waves breaking around a rocky outcrop at Point Reyes*

![National Park Service building near the Point Reyes Lighthouse](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-16.jpg)
*National Park Service building near the Point Reyes Lighthouse*

The photographs also caught wildlife on the grassy slopes above the ocean. We saw a group of tule elk, including several antlered males, spread out along the ridge. The animals were small in the frame, but they were easy to recognise against the open grass and blue sky.

![Wildlife on a grassy coastal slope above the ocean at Point Reyes](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-17.jpg)
*Wildlife on a grassy coastal slope above the ocean at Point Reyes*

I was glad we had asked the rangers where to drive rather than trying to cover every part of the seashore. Even with the parking problem, we saw the visitor centre, the radio station, the lighthouse area and the wildlife around the coast without needing to hike for long.

![Antlered elk on a grassy hillside at Point Reyes](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-18.jpg)
*Antlered elk on a grassy hillside at Point Reyes*

## San Francisco Premium Outlets

After leaving Point Reyes, we drove back towards the Bay Area and stopped at San Francisco Premium Outlets. We looked around, but the prices were too high for us to buy much. I was happy enough to walk through the outlet centre, although this was a shopping stop rather than a reason to plan the road trip.

![Driving back across a Bay Area bridge towards San Francisco](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-19.jpg)
*Driving back across a Bay Area bridge towards San Francisco*

![Zegna outlet at San Francisco Premium Outlets](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-20.jpg)
*Zegna outlet at San Francisco Premium Outlets*

We then went to Trader Joe’s and Costco nearby. At Trader Joe’s, we were still looking for the regional canvas bag that we had failed to find on the previous day’s stop. There was no luck this time either. The beer and produce displays made it into the photographs, but the bag did not.

![Trader Joe’s beer display](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-21.jpg)
*Trader Joe’s beer display*

![Fresh produce display inside Trader Joe’s](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-22.jpg)
*Fresh produce display inside Trader Joe’s*

## Back across the Oakland Bay Bridge

After the shopping stops, we took the Oakland Bay Bridge back towards San Francisco. The light had softened by then, and the skyline came into view as we crossed. It was a nice way to finish a day that had started with the Golden Gate Bridge and ended with another major bridge in the Bay Area.

![Driving back towards San Francisco at sunset](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-23.jpg)
*Driving back towards San Francisco at sunset*

![Crossing the Bay Bridge into San Francisco at sunset](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-24.jpg)
*Crossing the Bay Bridge into San Francisco at sunset*

Coming here in May also helped. The sun set later than it had during our December trip, so we still had enough daylight to see parts of California on the drive back. By the time we reached downtown San Francisco, it was dusk rather than full darkness.

![Driving into downtown San Francisco at dusk](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-25.jpg)
*Driving into downtown San Francisco at dusk*

![San Francisco streets around Pine and California at dusk](https://cdn.quietvacationer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/california-dreaming-point-reyes-26.jpg)
*San Francisco streets around Pine and California at dusk*

## Concluding thoughts

Yes. Point Reyes was a spontaneous replacement for Muir Woods, but it gave us a full day of driving, history, coastline and wildlife. The park was busy enough that parking affected the visit, and there is a lot of road between the different places, but the route still felt worthwhile once we were out there.

I especially liked that we could make the day our own. The visitor centre gave us enough information to choose where to continue, and we could stop at the Cypress Tree Tunnel, the KPH station and the lighthouse area without needing to commit to a demanding hike. The wildlife was distant, but that is part of visiting a large national seashore rather than a managed attraction.

I would do the drive again. I would start earlier and check the visitor centre and lighthouse opening times before leaving San Francisco, especially if I wanted more time at the lighthouse itself. For a second road trip with my colleague, though, Point Reyes was a good choice. It gave us a very different day from the drive down Highway 1, and it was a much better use of the day than sitting around waiting for Muir Woods to have space.

---

*Originally published on [The Quiet Vacationer](https://quietvacationer.com/2026/09/10/california-dreaming-point-reyes-national-seashore/)*