Heading there in May, and already have the following planned:
Alcatraz
Point Bonita
Fort Point
Wine Country
Any other suggestions?

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but I could use the same advice, with a trip out there planned in July.

Well if you are renting a car you really should try to visit Pt. Reyes. It's a great light to visit. Also you should stop in Oakland to see the lightship Relief, and eat lunch or dinner at Quinn's lighthouse. The restaurant is located in the old Oakland Harbor Lighthouse. They have the coolest front door I have ever seen.

I'll second the reccomendation to do Pt. Reyes with the added note that it's further away from the city than you might think.

You should also try and get to Muir Woods to get a small feel of the redwood forests farther up the coast.

I'll agree with going to Oakland Harbor as well- I had a great hamburger there a few years ago.

If you want to travel a bit south of the city Montara is fairly close with Pigeon Pt just a bit further south and if you want to make a full day of it add Santa Cruz with it's two lighthouses.

Dennis

If you really want to Lighthouse hunt go south. From San Francisco to Monterey (114 miles) the following lights in order going south. Montara, Pigeon PT,Santa Cruz and Pt Pinos. 19 miles south of Monterey is Big Sur Light. Art

Doesn't anyone read these Topics???????
So Cal

Since Bob is posting the shortcuts....

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Paul was also in this area about the same time.

This forum has more information than you could ever imagine - so many of our members have taken trips and shared them here. As you plan trip, search (especially this forum) for threads that have titles that might interest you. You may need to be inventive in your trip, not get overly specific. California might get you more useful info than just San Francisco and so on.

Having fun reading the logs. One note Dave -- Part 3 of yours seems to be linking to the "edit" function for the post, making it so I can't access it.

Jim, I'm starting to research this trip now, so as I find things, I'll post them here to share. BTW, what dates are you going? From what I'm noticing along the CA coast, a LOT of the lights are only open on certain days or dates. Noticing already that our trip (Sunday-Tuesday to get San Diego-SFO) is going to cause issues with this.

Going south of San Francisco don't miss the following: Point Bonita , Santa Cruz , Pigeon
Point and Point Pinos in Monterey. We did an overnight in Monterey and the next day got the docent tour at Point Pinos. Do the 14 Mile Drive and go into Carmel. Take the freeway back to SF.
Enjoy your trip.

Thanks, Everybody!

Anybody have any connections to Yerba Buena? I would love to see the light, but I hear you can't get in to see it.

Greg, you won't have much time to make the run from SD to SF. SFO is quite a ways south of SF by itself. Given that you need to cover some ground, you probably don't want to drive the coast - even though the lumber trucks travel at break neck speed, most drivers are not comfortable doing so (and the passengers can have a very rough ride with the zigging and zagging). Don't know what else your family plans for that stretch so you will have to take that into consideration. I would look at choosing one or two lights along the way, and spend your alloted lighthousing time visiting Fort Point, do the Bay cruise and go to Point Bonita. The Bay cruise departs on a very regular basis, and is well worth the 90 minute or so investment. You get good views of Fort Point, Alcatraz and Lime Rocks. Point Bonita is open only certain times, and they do not deviate. However, you can view the light from several places along the road, and the view of the Golden Gate Bridge and city is well worth the trip across the bridge.

Dave - we actually have those days in full to do the driving. Not a lot of stops planned, and all the lights I want to/can see are at the ends. I'll actually have something like 5 days in San Francisco to explore the lights and other sights.

Figuring on hitting the "big lights" only...Point Loma Old/New on the way out of San Diego, for sure. The LA metro lights will be dependent on a potential visit to Queen Mary in Long Beach. Otherwise, it's probably right up to Point Pinos, Pigeon Point, Point Montara, and then everything in the Bay area when we settle in there. Everything else is either not open, not the right time/excitement balance, or not easily accessed.

We're going to try to get out to Point Bonita and Point Reyes, if we have the time. I do, but my mom's going to be at a conference. I think you can take the ferry to Oakland, which gets off right near the lightship, and the Oakland Harbor light is a little further it seems. Yerba Buena somehow. East Brother on the Saturday trip. Alcatraz on the typical tour. Fort Point, drive or public transport.

Yerba Buena is on a military reservation i.e Coast Guard Station. Not open to the public, I've been you told need to take a ferry that goes by the Light. Art

When you go to Fishermans warf there are some small sight seeing boats for around $10.00 I always wanted to ask if they would do a lighthouse trip to East Brother Yerba buena and Alcatraz. If you are there check it out and maybe they will do it for a couple extra bucks. Then report back to us with this info if they do. Take a morning ride to do Point reyes it is a must do. it is a long trip and if you are pressed for time you dont have to do the 310 steps and still get some nice shots from the top.
If you go to Montera check out the time because if I remeber you can only get in before 11a and after 5 Pm I think. They close the gates for guests it is a hostel. Very pretty there.

Point Reyes, Point Bonita and Muir Woods can pretty well kill off a day all by themselves. From the Fisherman's Wharf area I would plan on 2 hours to get to Reyes. 1.5 - 2 hours there, then at least 90 minutes (or more) to Point Bonita. Lots of scenery along the way. The road to Reyes and then the coast road to or from Bonita is really a driver's road if you like the challenge. For the passengers, it really sucks. You may well want to stop at various points to enjoy the scenery. If there is other traffic, especially locals, you may well be tailgated but don't let them push you to overdrive. Not very difficult to get into trouble on those roads.

This is a drive you have to experience to fully understand what you have been told. Both Reyes and Bonita are what I refer to as "destination lights". The lights themselves aren't really spectacular, but the trip to them and the view is off the scale.

If you read the stories I linked to, the road to view East Brother is a very poor one unless they have fixed it. Incredibly rough and narrow, with a lot of people trying to drive it way too fast. The best view of East Brother is from the top of the hills, about half way. Not a lot of places to pull over or turn around, so if you miss that spot on the way up you may well have to go all the way to the end of that road, turn around and catch it on the way back. It is, to say the least, a crappy ride.

If you go to Quinn\'s Lighthouse Restaurant (the old Oakland Harbor Light), it is a little ways from the lightship. It has been a bit, but I would guess a mile or more (and I don't know that you would want to walk it.....) Dennis mentioned the burgers. They are most excellent - do be sure you don't accidentally order the large one because you will be able to feed most of the family with it.

Yes, last summer the road to East Brother was nothing but one giant pot hole. We went out there and it about beat those of us in the back seat silly.

If I remeber wasnt there a shooting range there? I remeber thinking I was tresspassing and someone was shooting at me. NO KIDDING.

Tomorrow is the big day! Starting out at fort point, then Point bonita, and the 4:40 tour out to alcatraz, if all goes well!
Then Sunday in Wine Country!

Have fun. Going to stop by the infamous Chateau Ripple for a sampling?