POINT REYES LIGHTHOUSE
Point Reyes, California
Hold on to your hat. This is one windy place. And out there. You can drive right to the lighthouse when the weather has been good. I have been during the rainy season and they make you go to another place and take bus shuttles. Even after you drive all the way out, there is a matter of those stairs. Over 300 of them, down to the lighthouse. That means up when you're done. Good thing for those little turnout decks along the way. I used them to pretend I needed more pictures.
I suppose I was lucky the day I drove out. It was a Saturday and just a sterling day. The sun was shining and there was no wind and no fog. You can usually count on bad weather here. They say it is the windiest and foggiest place on the California coast, if not the entire west coast. This 40 foot, 16 sided, iron plate tower sits on a perch that places the lens at 294 feet above the Pacific Ocean and the original 1st order Fresnel lens, which was first lit by John Bull on December 1, 1870, still bends the flashing light into a focused beam.
They added a steam fog signal in 1876 located on the cliff 100 feet below the light. In 1887, the signal operated for a total of 2070 hours. After one particular long stretch, a week I think, the keepers exhibited signs of derangement. It was a hard life out on Point Reyes. Isolated, cold, and lonely. They automated it in 1975.
There aren't a lot of different places to take pictures from except up and down those unending stairs. Thank god for those turnouts. Take a wide angle lens for when you are down at the light. It is easy to find, follow the signs off Hwy 1 north of San Francisco, near the town of Point Reyes Station. It is a lengthy drive out to the light through a lot of old cattle ranches.
Here's how I saw it:
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OF THE MOUNTAINS
John B Caddell
Copyright 2001