Living in San Francisco these past few years has dramatically redefined my relationship with the outdoors. Derek and I have the privilege of living one block away from Golden Gate Park and the Pacific Ocean is a short bike ride away — what a dream. The Bay Area’s natural beauty fuels my curiosity and often leaves me wondering what our next adventure will be.
After car camping at Yosemite NP, Lassen NP, and Half Moon Bay State Beach, the next thing I wanted to try was backpacking. Backpacking has always been intimidating to me because you can definitely nerd out on all the gear. Did you know they make portable sinks? After a year of collecting gear and taking one lightweight backpacking class at REI, we were ready. 😊
The perfect place for backpacking beginners is Point Reyes National Seashore. Located approximately 50 miles north of San Francisco, Point Reyes has 80 miles of undeveloped shoreline and over 150 miles of trails.
Camping here requires a camping permit from Recreation.gov and the reservations are almost always sold out. We were fortunate enough to find a last minute cancellation through YesYouCamp. Point Reyes has five campgrounds and we were able to reserve a campsite at Sky Camp.
We began our day at Bear Valley Visitor Center to pick up our camping permit and map. The quickest way to camp is parking at the Sky Trailhead and hiking a moderate 1.4 miles uphill.
Located on Mt. Wittenberg, Sky Camp is true to its name with panoramic views of Point Reyes, Drake’s Bay, and the Pacific Ocean on clear days. Sky Camp has 12 campsites and we were lucky number 8. The campsite is big enough for 2 tents and comes with a bear storage locker, picnic table, and charcoal grill.
There are trash and recycling facilities at the entrance of the camp along with restrooms and a spigot for drinking water. We weren’t exactly roughing it in the woods 😅.
After setting up camp, we made most of the day by doing a 6-mile, out-and-back hike to the ocean. We took the Sky Trail to Woodward Valley and traversed through one of the lushest, greenest trails in the park. We practically had the trail all to ourselves.
The wooded and grassy trail eventually opened up to sweeping views of the ocean and Point Reyes’s rugged coastline. We stopped to enjoy the views before deciding to head back. The trail goes all the way down to the beach but we were quickly losing daylight and the winds were bone-chilling.
Once back at camp, we relaxed a bit and started preparing dinner. When you have to carry everything on your back, more complex meals that require bags of charcoal fly out the window. We opted to boil water and treated ourselves to a warm dinner of chicken ramen 🍜.
Wood fires are prohibited at Point Reyes so we quickly retreated to our tent at nightfall and concluded our night with a game of Triumph.
The next morning, Tony and Derek had the genius idea of putting their sleeping bags in the hammocks. We attempted to get warm before making breakfast and packing up camp.
Once we left camp, we drove to Limantour Beach, which was a quick drive way. I’m always amazed at how we’re able to experience such pristine landscapes with so few people around.
No trip to Point Reyes is complete without stopping at The Point Reyes Lighthouse area. While we didn’t go to the lighthouse itself, we avoided the crowds by frolicking at the The South Beach Overlook which was covered in wildflowers!
Backpacking at Point Reyes was the perfect short-and-sweet trip we needed to get us acclimated to backpacking. One night may sound short but Point Reyes is also only an hour from the city which means we can come back pretty often. See you next time Point Reyes!
