Posted By: Lighthouse Joe
My San Francisco Lighthouse Adventure (long) - 02/02/04 11:43 PM
Due to lighthouse opening and closing times, and several discussions with DaveH and Whelan, I changed our plan of attack. Also, we had two days of 60 degree weather with no rain and little fog.
After breakfast, we started out for our lighthouse journey around 7:30 am from San Jose. We would head North to Point Reyes (about 2-2.5 hours from San Jose). Once you cross over the San Francisco Bay and enter the Marin Headlands, most of the road is two lanes, narrow, twisty, with one blind turn after another. After about 2 hours of this, you enter the the national park. The road continued its path up into the cliffs and bluffs overlooking the shoreline. All I could say was "WOW!". After all of this driving, we arrived at the Point Reyes Parking lot at 10:00am to find a 1/2 mile hike still waiting for us. The view along this walk is breathtaking. Finally we arrived at the top of the stairs going down to the lighthouse just as they were opening the gate. The bad news was, the lantern room was closed due to a lack of personnel that day.
After an hour exploring what was open and looking for whales (no luck, but 20 were spotted the day before), we began our ascent. Let me tell you, going down is alot easier than going back up!
After using the facilities (eeeeew!), we began our drive to Point Bonita. This entailed quite a bit of back tracking, but the view was well worth it. After another two hours of narrow, twisty roads,and beautiful scenery (keep in mind, this leg was mostly roads along cliffs following the coast), we arrived at Point Bonita around 1:00 pm. Again, ahead of us was another .5 mile walk down the path, through the tunnel, and over the GULP bridge.
Again we looked around and enjoyed the scenery. Point Bonita's lantern room is closed because it is still a USCG active light. From here, you could see Fort Point and Alcatraz in the distance. I put together a really long lens (my 200mm zoom with a 1.4x & a 2x TCs) to get this shot of Fort Point nearly 3 miles away. I would get better shots of both the next day.
It was now about 2:00. From here, I decided to skip Fort Point, bypass Montara Point and head straight to Pigeon Point 58 miles away. You would think thats about 1 hour away, not in this area. It took over 2 hours to get there with there are even more cliff roads along this drive. Again more beautiful coastline scenery and surfers on waves I would die for (or is that die on?).
We arrived at Pigeon point around 4:30. This was once a beautiful lighthouse that has seen better days. It was closed due to the collapse and fall of part of the walkway and cornice structure. It is surrounded by fencing and most of the buildings look pretty run down. You would never know it from this shot.
Back in our car, my wife looked very annoyed. She reminded me that the last time we ate was 7:00am. It was know 5:00pm, she was very hungry and I was in trouble. We headed back up Hwy 1 to Montara Point. The hostel was open and I was able to get some shots (really fast) close to sunset.
At this point, I high-tail it to the hotel in San Francisco (you know... the one I was with a mile of 3 hours ago). We finally dinner around 7:00pm.
The next day is her turn. We went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, where I found a better view of Fort Point. We rode the Cable Cars which was very different than what I am used too. It was like a roller coaster with commentary. We visited the Cable Car museum. On the way back to the hotel, I got a better view of Alcatraz. We went to Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf and shopped. I also snook in a few shots of Forbes Island and the seals. That night we caught our boat to Alcatraz and had a guided tour of some of the "out-of-bounds" areas at night all while being told a story of one of the attempted escapes from Alcatraz.
Now that was fun trip.
The rest of my lighthouse photos from this trip can be found at Lighthouse Joe\'s.
After breakfast, we started out for our lighthouse journey around 7:30 am from San Jose. We would head North to Point Reyes (about 2-2.5 hours from San Jose). Once you cross over the San Francisco Bay and enter the Marin Headlands, most of the road is two lanes, narrow, twisty, with one blind turn after another. After about 2 hours of this, you enter the the national park. The road continued its path up into the cliffs and bluffs overlooking the shoreline. All I could say was "WOW!". After all of this driving, we arrived at the Point Reyes Parking lot at 10:00am to find a 1/2 mile hike still waiting for us. The view along this walk is breathtaking. Finally we arrived at the top of the stairs going down to the lighthouse just as they were opening the gate. The bad news was, the lantern room was closed due to a lack of personnel that day.
After an hour exploring what was open and looking for whales (no luck, but 20 were spotted the day before), we began our ascent. Let me tell you, going down is alot easier than going back up!
After using the facilities (eeeeew!), we began our drive to Point Bonita. This entailed quite a bit of back tracking, but the view was well worth it. After another two hours of narrow, twisty roads,and beautiful scenery (keep in mind, this leg was mostly roads along cliffs following the coast), we arrived at Point Bonita around 1:00 pm. Again, ahead of us was another .5 mile walk down the path, through the tunnel, and over the GULP bridge.
Again we looked around and enjoyed the scenery. Point Bonita's lantern room is closed because it is still a USCG active light. From here, you could see Fort Point and Alcatraz in the distance. I put together a really long lens (my 200mm zoom with a 1.4x & a 2x TCs) to get this shot of Fort Point nearly 3 miles away. I would get better shots of both the next day.
It was now about 2:00. From here, I decided to skip Fort Point, bypass Montara Point and head straight to Pigeon Point 58 miles away. You would think thats about 1 hour away, not in this area. It took over 2 hours to get there with there are even more cliff roads along this drive. Again more beautiful coastline scenery and surfers on waves I would die for (or is that die on?).
We arrived at Pigeon point around 4:30. This was once a beautiful lighthouse that has seen better days. It was closed due to the collapse and fall of part of the walkway and cornice structure. It is surrounded by fencing and most of the buildings look pretty run down. You would never know it from this shot.
Back in our car, my wife looked very annoyed. She reminded me that the last time we ate was 7:00am. It was know 5:00pm, she was very hungry and I was in trouble. We headed back up Hwy 1 to Montara Point. The hostel was open and I was able to get some shots (really fast) close to sunset.
At this point, I high-tail it to the hotel in San Francisco (you know... the one I was with a mile of 3 hours ago). We finally dinner around 7:00pm.
The next day is her turn. We went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, where I found a better view of Fort Point. We rode the Cable Cars which was very different than what I am used too. It was like a roller coaster with commentary. We visited the Cable Car museum. On the way back to the hotel, I got a better view of Alcatraz. We went to Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf and shopped. I also snook in a few shots of Forbes Island and the seals. That night we caught our boat to Alcatraz and had a guided tour of some of the "out-of-bounds" areas at night all while being told a story of one of the attempted escapes from Alcatraz.
Now that was fun trip.
The rest of my lighthouse photos from this trip can be found at Lighthouse Joe\'s.
But thanks for sharing the pictures - they are beautiful!!
We need to get back to see the real thing.
...they reminded me of our trip with the Lighthouse Pixie (aka Nana & Derith)and the Florida Lighthouse club last July...At least on your walk down to Pt. Reyes you could see where you were going...we could not even see the light until we were right next to it because of the fog. You are right, that walk back up is the worst. 
Your picture of Pigeon Point is really great too.