Back in December I had grabbed a couple weekends in February to camp at Wildcat Camp in Pt Reyes National Seashore. The first one came and went with bad weather. The last weekend in February presented pretty good weather… at least as good as it can get in February.

It’s not the best time of the year to backpack overnight at Pt Reyes. It would be cold, windy, and have short days. I really only grabbed the reservation since I hadn’t been able to do much backpacking last year (besides my short Yosemite trip and my 25 day JMT hike… but that only counted as two trips 🙂 ).

Since I also wanted to test out my new Zpack backpack, sleeping pads, and other items I added after my JMT experience either broke the old items or I decided to tweak some of my gear.

So off I went to the Palomarin Trailhead on Friday afternoon. Parking my Jeep I strapped on my new backpack and headed down the trail. It’s about 6 miles to the Wildcat Campground, but it’s a nice hike with some nice views along the way. My thought was to ge tot the camp and setup my tent, then walk down Wildcat Beach to Alamere Falls (which is one of the primary things to see along this part of Pt Reyes).

But when I got to the camp and setup my tent and gear, I decided I didn’t want to walk down the mile to the Falls that evening. I did go to the beach near the campsite and enjoyed the sunset.

Spectacular.

The sunsets over the ocean was one of the reasons I love to come to this camp. It did not disappoint. After the sunset, I made my dinner and watched a heard of Tule Elk that were grazing near the camp. Very near. I think that’s the first time I saw Elk down this far it Pt Reyes. I had seen some a log time ago on the far northern tip of the Pt Reyes peninsula.

Then I watched some videos (since the sun set around 6pm and I wouldn’t go to sleep until 9-10pm) before settling into bed.

I had decided to bring my minus 20 degree (F) sleeping bag since i knew it would be cold and windy this time of year.

I was right. But the sleeping bag did keep me warm and I only had to wear a single layer where other winter trips would have me in 3+ layers sometimes. I only used my down jacket for late night trips to the bathroom and first thing in the morning.

The only downside of this area of Pt Reyes is there’s really no way to enjoy the sunrise since the ridge is in the way. But there was a Full Moon and watching it set over the Pacific Ocean at dawn was nice too.

After breakfast, the Sun finally rose over the ridge to the East and I set off for a nice day hike around the area. Unfortunately, due to forest fires last year, the areas to the north of Wildcat were off limits.

But while I had been in this area several times before, I had never hiked south along the Ridge Trail. So, I headed up the Old Out Road and Alamea Trails (both new trails for me) until I got to Fir Top for a nice break.

At 1,324 feet, this was a high point for the immediate area, but unfortunately it had all these Fir Trees so you couldn’t see much. Go figure. 🙂

From there, it was a pleasant hike south along the Ridge Trail. At the intersection with Lake Ranch Trail, I had to decide if I wanted to continue along the ridge (maybe all the way to Pablo Point) or descend to the Coast trail (which I had hiked into the camp the day before).

I was actually a little surprised at how long it had taken for me to get that far, so decided on the shorter loop. Plus the Ridge Trail was mostly through forest, so there weren’t any amazing views along the way.

As I reached the Coast Trail and started back towards Wildcamp Camp, I had to decide about Alamere Falls.

While I could return to the camp then go to the falls along the beach, there was a trail that went down to the top of the falls, which was also the only way to see the upper and middle cascades of these falls since they weren’t really visible from the beach below.

I had kind of thought it would be nice to see the Sunset from the beach near the falls (which would also mean less peopel around the falls), I decided that taking the trail to the Falls would be the better option for the late afternoon.

The trail and the area was full of day trippers which I had to keep my distance from and pop my mask on as we passed, but it was a nice hike and then a nicer view of the upper and middle parts of the falls.

That was the point that my Sony HX99 camera decided to stop working. The lens would start extending, but then retract and extend before an error appeared on the screen. Well, I still had my iPhone to take hundreds of photos that would only be looked at a few times. 🙂

The problem with this trail is it was very rough and there were some very steep parts where the trail was very worn that people had formed to get down to the falls over the years. In fact, it wasn’t an official trail that the park service maintained.

The first part to the middle cascades wasn’t bad, but then final climb down to the beach and lower falls was very tricky. Especially with all the people trying to go up or down the single route.

It was a hard class 2 decent. Fortunately, it was short. As I reached the bottom I looked up and was (not for the first time) amazed at all the people who actually went UP that trail. I don’t think I had ever bothered to try. I always took the route down the beach and back up along the Coast Trail to return to the trailhead. Of course, that made a lot of sense since Wildcat Camp was right next to the beach along that route.

So took my time add I enjoyed the lower falls that spill over a sharp edge of the cliff and onto the beach below. A nice view. Since it was still mid-afternoon, there were a lot of people who had day-hiked out to the falls.

It would have been nicer to be out here at Sunset when I’m sure there would be less people, but after a break down the beach near Double Point, I decided to head back to camp about one and a quarter miles up the beach. Fortunately, it was low tide, so it wasn’t a problem. I had thought about coming down here in the morning, but at high tide, it might not be possible or safe to walk down the beach.

Back at camp, I decided to see the Sunset from the top of the cliff that Wildcat Camp was perched on. A little different viewpoint than seeing it from the beach the night before. I did see the Tule Elk again that evening as they munched on the vegetation.

And with a few light bands of clouds, the Sunset was even more colorful than the previous night.

I had ramen for dinner and then settled in for the night. It was fairly warmer than the first night, but my winter sleeping bag still came in handy.

In the morning, I had breakfast and then decided to take a long hike up the beach from the camp. With the hiking trails north of the camp closed due the fires, this was the best option to spend some time away from camp on my last day.

I also confirmed that the tide was pretty far up the beach by that time (with maybe 2-3 hours till high tide), so a long hike down to Alamere Falls in the morning would have been precarious (and would probably have made me return by climbing up the cliff near the falls).

Although, it did occur to me (too late) that I could have climbed down the cliff on my way to the camp on the first day, but carrying a full pack down that was a bit daunting.

After my walk on the beach, I packed up my tent and gear and headed back to my Jeep at the trailhead. I decided to take an alternate route from the Coast Trail that I had hiked along to camp on the first day.

It’s called the Ocean Lake Loop and passes by a lake next to the ocean. Go figure. 🙂

It does have a somewhat steep climb up 300-400 feet, which is why I didn’t take it on the way to camp. But it does have a great viewpoint overlooking the beach and entire coastline which made it a great way to end the trip.

I decided to take a nice long lunch break at Bass Lake along the way back and spotted what I first thought to be a bobcat along the trail. He spotted me and trotted away from me. I actually had time to take some pictures, for once. 🙂

The pointed nose obviously ruled out it being a bobcat and it wasn’t big enough to be a coyote (and didn’t look like anything from the canine family anyway). I thought maybe some kind of fox or even a juvenile racoon (the tail did have soem fail stripes and it looked to have a mask of sorts).

After some research and asking the rangers via email, we determined it was a Gray Fox.

That was the first time I had seen one, so it was a nice end to the trip.

Finishing the hike back to my Jeep, I celebrated with a Diet Coke on the way back home. So, while this was an area I had previously visited several times (day and overnight hikes), it was still a good start to my backpacking trips for the year.

Onward and upwards!