| As
local Garrett Whitt who consulted on this chapter pointed
out, there is access and there is access. Some people
have operator chairs that are narrow, some have motorized
chairs that are wide; some are equipped with all-terrain
tires, some not. In this section I provide as much information
about the gradient, width and surface of a particular
trail as I can. For definitive information regarding wheelchair
access, call the Park Service trail maintenance people
at (415) 663-8522
BEAR VALLEY TRAIL
- Water at trailhead only
- Restrooms at trailhead and Divide
Meadow
- Carry binoculars
- 1.6Miles to Divide Meadow
- 4.1 Miles to Arch Rock and the ocean
DIRECTIONS: From Point Reyes
Station head south on Highway #1. Just over the green
bridge take an immediate right onto Sir Francis Drake
Boulevard. Take the first left (minding the on-coming
traffic from around the blind curve.) About a mile down
you will see the marked right turn for the Point Reyes
National Seashore Headquarters. Follow this drive to
the end, past the barn-like Bear Valley Visitor Center.
Park in the lot and head out from the main trailhead
with the information kiosk. Trailhead about 2 miles
from Point Reyes Station.
WARNING:
This trail is used by mountain bikers who may not resist
the temptation to hurtle down the slope back to the
trailhead at high speed. Stay right and listen for approaching
bikes behind you.
This trail is my all-time/all-people
favorite for nearly any combination of ages and agility.
It is the old Bear Valley Road that people traveled
by horse-drawn carriage to the hunting lodge that existed
in Divide Meadow until the early 1900s. The lodge is
now gone, but the knoll on which it sat with the stately
Douglas fir trees and sweeping view down across the
meadow are still there waiting for you.
From the time my son was
a newborn in a front-slinged pack until, as a hiking
preschooler, we never tire of the changing scene along
Bear Valley Trail.
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For nearly twenty
years this has been my first choice for brisk exercise
with local friends at any time of the day or year. It
is the trail I choose when my mother and my aunt, both
in their seventies, come to visit. Local joggers use Bear
Valley Trail because it starts out nearly level, moves
into a gentle incline, and provides a number of natural
turn-around spots along the way. The trip back from Divide
Meadow is a gentle glide down the slope to the trailhead.
Bear Valley trail is not paved; the
surface is somewhat rocky, hard-packed, decomposed granite
that is well maintained and very wide. It holds its
surface even in very stormy weather (read: "no
muddy potholes"). The first stretches of the trail
through the Bear Valley meadow parallel the burbling
creek. The trail is nearly level for a good third of
a mile into the woods. It then begins a gradual climb
for another quarter of a mile before it pitches up fairly
steeply for the last fifty yards to Divide Meadow, so
called because this is where the watershed divides:
Coast Creek turns here to run south to the ocean and
Bear Valley Creek drains north from here to its outlet
at Tomales Bay. The parade of creatures on the trail
is always a delight to me: solitary birders with binoculars,
hiking groups loaded up with gear piled high for an
overnight in one of the campgrounds, people on horseback,
wheelchairs, babies in jogger-strollers, joggers, naturalist
seminars, deer, cottontails - all of these speaking
any number of languages.
As you head out the trail, it cuts through
the open meadow where axis deer, fallow deer and black-tailed
deer feed. Brought here in the late 1940’s from
India, the axis deer are shy and graceful, and produce
fawns at any time of the year. They have a reddish brown
coat with white spots that are invisible throughout
the year. A white "bib"on their chests
and a dark stripe that runs the length of their backs
are distinguishing features. The bucks’ antlers
are shed every winter.
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