Sunday, September 13, 2009

Point Bonita Lighthouse National Park

Below: View to the Golden Gate bridge from the Point Bonita hike to the lighthouse. Below this cliff, you can see the sealions basking on the rocks. You can also see an old boathouse and boatslide down which they used to push out the rescue boats in the early 1900s.


Below: you can see the wooden bridge to the lighthouse.



Great place to visit; it's in the Marin Headlands in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (so it's a National Park). Teaming with hikes I haven't yet done, today we just went to visit the lighthouse. It's a 0.5 mile walk down (past jagged cliffs looking down onto sealions barking and basking) and white-capped waves. At the bottom of the trail, you wind through a hand-hewn tunnel (worth pondering how much work went into the tunnel as you walk through it), and then you find yourself on a tiny headland.

There, you wait in line for your turn to cross the (slightly rickety) wooden bridge to the actual lighthouse. Only two can cross at a time, so it can take a while if you go during a busy weekend, but it's worth the wait. Take the time to review the interpretive signs while you wait; they're always interesting.

Once across the bridge, you can visit the tiny lighthouse, look at the breath-taking views, review the stunningly high number of shipwrecks before the lighthouse was built, and talk to the ranger.

The bridge to the lighthouse (and the tunnel to the bridge) is only open on certain days/times of the week; check here to see the latest times/days:

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