KEHOE BEACH & THULE ELK

Ok, back to the Pt. Reyes National Seashore one more time. But, truly folks, this is a magnificent park and one could spend months exploring and observing here especially if you don't bring your dog. I don't care for that part of it much but I certainly understand why it has to be. Everywhere we have been there have been leash laws, much to my chagrin. And, everywhere we've been people take their dogs off lead. And, worse yet, they don't pick up after them. Yuck!

Anyway, we headed out to the north point. The Kehoe Beach Trail is a short walk to the beach and it is a really pretty beach with incredible sand cliffs.

After Kehoe we kept on going north until we got into the elk preserve. Thule elk are only found in California. Apparently, their numbers were once up there with the buffalo until we arrived and wiped them out. They were nearly extinct before someone decided to give them a hand. Now the park has a herd of between 300 - 400 and there are around 3,200 statewide. They are elegant beasts.

We almost got to Tamales Point, the northern most point but we'd fiddled around until we lost all the light so we headed home.

Until next time ....

© Kinsey Barnard

BACK TO PT. REYES

On Thursday we headed back to Pt. Reyes National Seashore. This time to Limantour Beach, which is in the Phillip Burton Wilderness Area. Limantour is a particularly nice beach. Broad and flat and hardly anyone there. Really nice for walking and cavorting. Mom did the walking I did the cavorting.

The biggest excitement of the day was spotting an American Bittern. They are members of the heron family. This bird has the ugliest feet. They are huge, yellow and have what look like claws. Really, the strangest feet on a bird I ever did see!

Friday we drove north with the idea of going to the Russian River. Despite all the storms the river was pretty low. The water was muddy and not very picturesque. We ended up in Guerneville and Armstrong Park. As usual hiking for us was pretty restricted. The dog thing don't you know. But, it is a pretty park in the midst of beautiful big redwoods and certainly worth the visit.

Ooops! I loaded the photos in reverse order! Sorry about that!

© Kinsey Barnard

MR. TOAD'S WILD RIDE!

We are still hiding out from the big storms here in Northern California. I think mom now has us scheduled for departure on Monday. I guess we'll just have to see how the weather holds.

Meantime, I can tell you about another adventure that we had. Mom decided to try heading south to see what we could see. Not too far south of Eureka we found The Avenue of the Giants. This is a drive that takes you through the oldest, virgin stand of redwoods in the world! That sounds like a wowser to me! Unfortunately, it was dark and dreary and mom didn't get any interesting pictures for me to show you.

Looking at the map it looked like there might be a cool loop you could make that took you through the Rockefeller Forest and eventually to a place known as the Lost Coast and then back to Ferndale and 101. Well, let me tell you. We got a lot more than we bargained for. On the little map we had picked up at the information place this loop looked like a easy little trip. What we ended up with was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. At least that what mom called it.

Me, I'm just glad I don't get car sick cuz I've never been on such a steep and windy road in all my live long days! I mean there were so hairpin turns my fur almost curled! And some place were so steep I wondered how little Shadow was going to be able to haul us up them.

After about 2.5 hours we made it to the Lost Coast. No wonder they call it "lost". I sure thought we were! It was beautiful but I'm not sure it was worth the drive getting there. Except, if you start in Ferndale it's a lot shorter drive.










© Kinsey Barnard

PS: Read what interior designer Kristi Linauer has to say about my mom's photography! Kristi Linauer Review