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Below is a slideshow tour of the hike to
beautiful Alamere Falls in Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California.
The trailhead is at the end of Mesa Rd near Bolinas, CA. The waterfall is only
19 miles north of San Francisco as the bird flies, but the trailhead is about 30
miles or about a one hour drive because of the winding coastal road that must be
navigated to get there.
Allow 5 hours minimum for the round trip hike. Check the tide chart before
going. The waterfall falls right onto the beach. Access is limited and photos
aren't as pretty during high tide. For best results visit within an hour of
low tide. From the southern Palomarin trailhead it's either about 9 miles or 11
miles round-trip, depending on your route to the falls. Both routes are
the same for about the first four miles, then the shorter, unmaintained route
veres off to the left (west) for .4 mile to the falls. The longer, safer,
official route continues north for another mile to Wildcat Camp, then heads back
south down Wildcat Beach for about a mile to the bottom of Alamere Falls. |
Lower Alamer Falls and Wildcat
Beach |
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The shorter route requires navigating some dangerous
and unstable coastal cliffs, and is not recommended by the park service.
In order to view the upper falls and cascades you must take the first part
(upper part) of this trail. You cannot see the Upper Falls and cascades
from the beach. The section on the trail between the cascades and
the beach (lower falls) is the most dangerous. It is extremely unstable.
Many thousands of small shaley rock make this very, very steep route
extremely dangerous, as you can easily slip and fall to your death or
experience severe injuries.
Check out the slideshow below for the rest of the details and photos of the hike.
Alamere Falls Hike, Point Reyes National Seashore |
