Point Reyes Weekend

You Mon Tsang June 5th, 2008

The National Park Service publishes a newsletter about events, closures, natural history, and cultural history at Point Reyes. Here is the issue from 2008-06-03:

The full moon rises June 18 at 10:30 am with the summer solstice soon to follow on June 21st. The moon makes it lowest arc across the sky for this summer ‘Moon of Good Fishing’ for the Tlingit people.

Summer is just around the corner with the return of brown pelicans to the Lighthouse and Drakes Bay; the gopher hunting heron afield at Bear Valley and brush bunnies along roadways.

Scraps of scarlet along roadsides are ‘twinberry’, a native shrub – “the bracts, as the fruit ripens, turn a rosy red and set off the bug-eyed pair of shining black fruits to perfection’ (Roxana Ferris – Flowers of Point Reyes). The pink flowering stage of this plant draws hummingbirds, the fruits are not edible to humans but enjoyed by birds. Plenty of elderberry flowering along roadsides, light yellow clumps of flowers that will become berries by late summer.

Tule elk are calving now; typically the calves may be left resting by themselves while the mother is nearby nourishing herself on fresh grasses and shrubs. Males have their antlers in velvet. In order to remove the velvet, they’ll begin scratching and honing the antlers against brush and power poles in the reserve, preparing for late summer battles.

Marin County Parks and Open Space staff host a tidepooling expedition on Friday, June 6th at Agate Beach County Park from 9:00 am to 12 noon. Meet at the end of Overlook and Elm Road in Bolinas for one of the best daylight low tides of the year.

A permit has been issued for a wedding at Limantour Beach (60+ people) on Saturday June 7 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm; Expect some congestion in the parking lot in the afternoon.

New artwork on display at the Bear Valley Visitor Center is by Judith Corning, paintings of various scenes around the park.

Expect road closures this Sunday, June 7 in the town of Point Reyes Station; Highway 1 will be closed from approximately 12 noon through 1:00 pm for a local parade; traffic will be diverted onto side streets.

Thanks to the NPS Park Service.

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You Mon Tsang September 3rd, 2007

On a warm, crowded Labor Day weekend in the Point Reyes area, one highlight was the Sand Sculpture Contest at Drakes Bay.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 60 contestants and 1,000 onlookers showed up for the fun, annual event. The Chronicle describes the winner of the adult group competition as a “cross between an igloo, an Egyptian pyramid and the loading dock of a Costco.” Wow.

Read the entire article and look at the photos…

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You Mon Tsang August 24th, 2007

This type of story doesn’t seem to come around very often so I am glad to highlight Thursday’s announcement by the National Park Service. According to the San Francisco Chronicle,

… officials hope to invest $1 billion by the Park Service’s 100th anniversary in 2016. Under the plan, national parks in California would get $54 million in the 2008 fiscal year, including $45 million for some Northern California parks: the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Point Reyes National Seashore, Redwood National Park, Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Lava Beds National Monument.

Specifically for the Point Reyes area, the Marin Independent Journal reports two projects on the list:

• an ocean education program which could receive $180,000, where the goal is to “educate the public about the ocean as a resource. This would be accomplished over two years through designing and distributing publications, creating a lecture series on various aspects of ocean resources and designing and fabricating three mobile interpretive displays that would travel to schools and public buildings. A staffer would be hired to coordinate the efforts.”

• $100,000 to “provide improvements to the trail at Abbotts Lagoon that would reduce impacts to wetlands and the endangered Sonoma alopecurus habitat, a federally endangered plant. The improvements would include a boardwalk.”

The improvements will be funded by both the government and private donations.

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