We spent the first few days of our trip driving across Nevada and hanging out in Sacramento.  On Sunday we stocked up on goodies at Trader Joes then drove to Samuel P. Taylor State Park to camp for the night.   With no public land remotely close to the bay area a $35 a night car camping spot is about as good as it gets.  Those of us living in Utah where there’s so much public land available for free camping don’t realize how lucky we are really are.   While $35 is pretty steep I would still consider camping there again on a future trip. This my fist time camping under redwoods and it was definitely a cool experience.   We spent the night and then wandered around the campground before heading off to Point Reyes.

Jumping on the Salt Flats

Samuel P. Taylor Campground

Massive Trees in our campsite

First stop of the day was the required photos of the The Point Reyes in downtown Inverness. I absolutely love this boat and the kids get a kick out of it as well.

We called the Roots who were just leaving Davis and still planned on meeting us at the Point Reyes light house for a short day hike before we started backpacking so we stopped at Drakes beach for a few hours to let the kids run around while we waited.

After Drakes Beach we drove to the lighthouse trail head and met up with Tyler and family. We made the hike down the 300+ stairs to check out the lighthouse and then drove to the visitor center to pick up our reserved backpacking permits before driving out to the Coast Camp trail head.

Once at the trail head it took us about a half hour to get our packs ready and start out on the 2 mile hike to coast camp. This was the first backpacking trip with all 3 boys  and it was a perfect test run for some future trips we have planned for later this year.   We made it to our site, set up camp,  and then headed down to the beach for sunset.  It was pretty windy and a bit cold but still fun. There were too many clouds for star trails but I did take a few long exposures from the ridge above our campsite.

April and boys on the trail

San Francisco light pollution over Point Reyes

Around midnight it started to rain and it kept going all night and into the morning.  We stayed in the tent and packed up everything, put on our rain gear, and April started packing out with the boys while I packed up the remaining gear. I figured I would soon catch up but our boys are such great hikers and had a  blast stomping in the mud and splashing in every puddle during their hike out that I didn’t catch up a until few hundred yards before the trail head.   It took us at least 30min to unpack our bags and repack the car then we headed up the road to find a spot where we could get internet access and check the weather.   Forecast was nothing but rain for the next 24hours so we called it quits and headed south along the 1 making quick stops at Agate beach,  Sausalito,  then over the Golden gate to San Francisco.

Bowen came REALLY close to grabbing this pelican in Sausalito

Lucky for us my brother was working in San Francisco all week so we got to crash in his hotel room in downtown San Francisco 1 block from union square.  The boys were utterly thrilled about the VIP lounge that was always filled with snacks and had amazing views of the city.  One of the first things I did was figure out the safety latches on the windows so I could shoot photos of the city.

We spent the next three days doing cheap touristy things around San Francisco. Baker Beach, long walks downtown, cable car museum, Ocean beach,  golden gate park, and a few trips for sunrise and sunset at Crissy Field. It was actually a nice pleasant change of pace from our usual trips.

The Golden Gate from Crissy Field.

Sunset from Crissy Field

On our last night in SF I was able to catch some lighting (from what I understand a pretty rare occurance in the bay area) from the window of our 15th floor hotel room).

We left SF and made a long stop in Sacramento before driving across Nevada and back to Utah.  Even with only two nights of camping it still was pretty fun to get out and see the city.

The first stop in Marin county was Muir Woods,  just as we got out of the car the rain started to come down. We hiked up and down the board walk and paved trail for about 2 miles before the rain really started to come down.  The boys could not have cared less about the rain and had a great time seeing the huge redwoods again.

By the time we made it back to the car we were all pretty soaked so we drove over to Stinson beach and ate lunch hoping the rain would stop.  After lunch the rain was still coming down so we just drove the 1 to Sausalito and around the Golden Gate Bridge before we gave up and checked into our hotel and met up with Kendall and Candace.  A few hours later the rain let up so we set headed out to Bonita Point for sunset. We hiked down the trail to the light house only to reach a locked door.

the end…

The next morning the weather was beautiful so we headed over the Golden Gate to San Francisco to check out the Sutro baths and Golden Gate Park.  Then we drove back over the Golden Gate  and met up with Kendall and Candace to hike out to Agate Beach near Bolinas.

Bowen (3yo) throwing a major fit at the Sutro Baths… we just all sat back and watched this one.

Agate beach has become one of our favorite places to visit, the tide pools are very accessible and just perfect for the kids.

Soon we were back on the road headed north up to Point Reyes.  We made a quick stop in Inverness to pick up a few things at the local market and to shoot a few photos of the infamous boat in Tomales Bay. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me, I really love this old boat.

We then drove over to the Point Reyes visitors center and picked up the backpacking permits that I reserved a few weeks earlier. We parked at the coast camp trail head and packed our bags and set out on the two mile trail to our campsite.

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We quickly set up our camp and headed down to the beach to let the kids run wild before the sunset.

Kendall and Candace.

Fist thing in the morning Kendall and Candace went trail running while April, the boys, and went for a short hike south along the beach.

After our short hike we packed up camp and started on the hike out. The kids were great hikers especially Bowen (3yo) who hiked the 4 miles in and out of coast camp on his own with a backpack on.

We made it back to the car around 2:30 and made the short drive down the road to Limatour Beach. We then made the decision to drive back to Sacramento rather than wait 4 hours for the bay area traffic to die down (we got stuck in it once… never again). We spent 3 more days in Sacramento hanging out with my Dad and little brother before making the long drive back to Utah.