Point Reyes, Drake’s Beach
- Food
- Station House Cafe, Point Reyes Station
- Farm stand
- Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company
- Sports
- A junior-college game in the North Bay
Crowd level: Mixed. Go early, or pick a weekday
Best season Weekday mornings, September–November, when the light is clean. Summer weekends fill the lots. Winter storms are spectacular and wet.
Drive 1 hr 20 min
From downtown San Francisco via the Golden Gate, in calm midday traffic. Summer weekends can add half an hour or more.
Parking. Beach and lighthouse lots have limits and fill on clear weekends. The road toward the lighthouse is seasonal. Arrive before 10 if the sky is famous.
Point Reyes is a peninsula on the Pacific plate, with a lighthouse, a beach, and tule elk if you go far enough north. It is known, and it is still a better day than a city museum when the fog is doing its job. Pick one piece of it. Do not try to collect the whole park.
The short version
The lighthouse went up in 1870 on a point that wrecked ships. A plaque tradition ties Sir Francis Drake’s 1579 landing to these shores. That landing spot is disputed. What is not disputed is the San Andreas: the peninsula sits on the Pacific plate, separated from the rest of Marin by the fault. The geology is the exhibit.
Food nearby
Station House Cafe, Point Reyes Station
Eat in Point Reyes Station before or after the beach. Station House Cafe is the town room. The oyster companies are a separate stop and can become their own queue. Do one thing well.
A game nearby
A junior-college game in the North Bay
There is no stadium on the point. If you want a ticket this weekend, look at Santa Rosa Junior College or a high-school game inland. Skip a pro Sunday in the city.
Farms and stands nearby
Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company
A farmstead marketplace for their own cheeses, picnic supplies, house-made cookies, sourdough, and soft-serve ice cream, plus jams and charcuterie from other local makers. The company says it is women-founded. The shop is the grocery stop. The Fork takes reservations for events only.
Season. The farm FAQ says the marketplace needs no appointment and lists Monday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Farm tours are paused. The marketplace page loads hours in a widget, so check the site the day you go.
Their contact page gives the address as 14700 State Highway 1, Point Reyes Station. Cell service is spotty, so download the map. Pets stay home, except service animals. Straus Family Creamery moved its plant out of Marshall in 2021. There is no Marshall creamery store to visit.
Official page
Share your experience
First-hand only. Be kind. No politics. You took the photos, and you grant Quiet Coordinates permission to publish them with your name or initials. Write [email protected] to ask for a removal.