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| Drake's Estero |
Date: September 1st, 2025
Place: Point Reyes National Seashore, California
Coordinates: 38.082846, -122.914110
Length: 8.7 miles
Level: moderate
On Labor Day, which was the last day of Pappa Quail and mine nature getaway weekend at Point Reyes National Seashore, we went hiking the Estero Trail, which is in the middle part of the preserve. After two hot days the temperatures plummeted and we woke up to a cold and foggy morning. When we arrived at the trailhead the for was still quite dense and the air was chilly and wet.
Even before we started walking we were seeing some birds. An American goldfinch was nibbling on tarweed seeds near the parking lot.
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| American Goldfinch |
There were only two other cars in the parking lot and below one of them were two wet-looking white-crowned sparrows.
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| White-crowned Sparrows |
We didn't plan to go very long on that trail, only to go down to the first place where the trail meets the water and see what we could find there. We did however, end up going almost all the way to the beach, and back.
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| Our hike as captured by my GPS |
An information sign at the trailhead warned us about the damage that invasive plant species are doing to the local habitats. Ironically, a large patch of naked lady lilies was blooming near that sign.
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| Naked Lady Lily, Amaryllis belladonna |
The first part of the trail was a narrow dirt road cut through a field of tall, dry grass. When I say dry I mean, life-cycle completed dead, not physically dry. That yellow dead grass was, like everything else around, soggy wet from the fog.
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| Estero Trail |
Here and there I saw some pacific aster blooming between the grasses. It was nice to see some blossom among all the post season weeds.
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| Pacific Aster, Symphyotrichum chilense |
A small and hairy caterpillar was making its way across the trail. It was going as fast as caterpillars can go.
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| Woolly Bear Caterpillar |
Before long the trail descended into a dense forest of conifers, most of which were pine trees. There were at least two species of pines in that forest, very distinct from one another. I think the tall, pale-barked pines were Monterey Pines, but I'm not completely sure.
The forest floor bushes and fallen branches were covered with spider webs which, wetted by the fog, looked like delicate doilies hanging.
As soon as we entered the woods Pappa Quail begun his hide and seek game with the forest birds - they would tweet and hop from one tree to another and Pappa Quail would try to spot them and take photos. The brown creeper was spotted but disappeared before the photo op. The hairy woodpecker did stick around long enough for a photo, but made sure to be behind a branch. The dark-eyed junco, one of the most common bird species around, did pose nicely for the camera.
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| Dark-eyed Junco |
I was looking out for the birds too, which is why I nearly stepped on a banana slug on the trail. It was Pappa Quail who saw it first and called me to stop. The banana slug wasn't yellow though, but it sure was big.
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| Banana Slug |
At some point it started to drizzle a little. While we were debating wether to continue or to turn back the drizzle stopped, leaving the scenery even wetter than it was before.
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| Bull Thistle, Cirsium vulgare |
I saw some rose plants along the trail. None of them were blooming but some had nice looking fruit, most of them underripe.
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| Rosehip |
We reached the bottom of the road trail and below the fog. The sky was dark and heavily overcast still. We continued on a flat stretch of trails below the tall pines toward Drake's estuary.
When we reached the water there was not much to see there, not in terms of birds, anyway. The open water was quite far away - the tide was receding at the time.
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| Drake's Estero |
Between the trail and the water was a wide belt of mixed mud flats. salt marsh, and mucky pools of standing water. In truth, it wasn't a very appealing sight.
Pappa Quail scanned the muddy area and saw a few shorebirds there. There weren't many of them, and they were a bit far, but he did take some photos.
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| Semipalmated Plover |
A small bridge traversed the water and we crossed it slowly, looking at the shorebirds as we walked, hoping to see some more. There was an egret on the other side and a western gull swimming in the open water, but both were too far away.
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| Shorebird |
We decided to continue up the trail on the other side of the estuary. If there weren't too many birds at the water, perhaps we'll see more on land on the other side.
There were quite a few wildflowers on the other side, so I was content to go on. Pappa Quail moved ahead, ascending the mild slope while I lingered behind him, pausing for the blooming plants.
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| Common Yarrow, Achillea millefolium |
The slender tarweed is a late bloomer. In fact, I expected to see many more of these lovely end of summer wildflowers. I saw more of them later along the trail.
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| Slender Tarweed, Madia gracilis |
There was no forest on this side of the estuary but there was chaparral covering a large area of that slope. Some of these bushes were the sticky monkeyflower, but only a little bloom of these was left at the end of summer.
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| Sticky Monkeyflower, Diplacus aurantiacus |
The trail ascended through a thicket of wet chaparral bushes and vines of many species, including the invasive sweet pea, and the notorious French Broom, which was the main invasive species plant that the sign at the trailhead informed us about.
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| Estero Trail |
Not slowed down by any bird sightings, Pappa Quail charged ahead. I kept sopping to take photos of wildflowers so a gap formed.
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| Pearly Everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea |
At some point the wall of bushes opened up a bit and we had a nice view of Drake's Estuary below. The water expanse was gloomy-gray, mirroring the overcast sky.
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| Drake's Estero |
The trail leveled and curved around the hill's contour. I Caught up with Pappa Quail when he was focusing on a scrub jay that was perched on top of a small pine below the trail.
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| California Scrub Jay |
The chaparral mixture included also ceanothus bushes. early all of them were done blooming but I did see a few lingering floral heads on some of them.
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| Glory Bush, Ceanothus gloriosus |
For a while the trail was fairly level. The as it curved eastward the tall chaparral changed to low coastal scrub. Standing out were the tall pampas grass, a highly invasive species that was brought to California for landscaping and established itself in the wild at the expense of native plant species.
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| Pampas Grass, Cortaderia jubata |
Now that we were walking along the south-facing side of the hill we had a nice southward view of Drake's Estero. We couldn't see all the way to its end because of the fog but we did see ahead on the other side a land spit that extended into the water.
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| Drake's Estero |
A bunch of birds were resting on that spit of land. The large white ones were white pelicans. Behind them were some cormorants. A few gulls were there too, but the biggest number was of rock pigeons.
We reached a nice view point on the estuary. A big information sign told us that we were hiking now in the biggest wilderness area in the Bay Area. Through the fog we could make the outline of the south end of the estuary far to the south, behind which was the open ocean at Drake's Bay.
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| Drake's Estero |
A few birds were flying closer to where we stood, making it easier for Pappa Quail to photograph them. One of these birds was a solitary brown pelican.
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| Brown Pelican |
There were a couple of western gulls flying there too but Pappa Quail focused on a tern that was looping in the air below the cliff we were on.
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| Forster's Tern |
In good timing with the trail curving back south the sun finally was breaking through the clouds. The trail was descending to a small vale at the end of which, was a human-made cattle pond.
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| Estero Trail |
No cattle was present. We scanned the pond and the surrounding cattails for birds but didn't see much. Not at the water, anyway.
What we did see was a song sparrow on the cattle fence that barred the pond from the trail goers. Dairy cows are are still being ranched in this part of Point Reyes. The fences looked well maintained and there were cattle gates in a few places on the trail.
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| Song Sparrow |
From the vale and cattle pond the trail rose again on the hillside. We noticed a solitary tree at the hill's crest and decided to take a break there. The tree turned out to be eucalyptus - another introduced, turned invasive, plant species. As soon as we settled under that tree we were compelled to get up quickly and run away - that eucalyptus had some hollow parts that were colonized by a feral hive of honeybees, yet another exotic species.
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| Eucalyptus |
We couldn't see any other place nearby to sit down for a break so we continued on. The next vale also had a cattle pond at the bottom.
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| Estero Trail |
That pond was also nearly devoid of birds. There was one great egret on its far side but we didn't bother with it.
The sky above northern part of Drake's Estero was clear now, and the estuary water turned brilliant blue. I could no longer see the place where we had crossed the water - it was all the way around the curve on the right.
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| Drake's Estero |
Above us where we stood the clouds still hung, dense and low. From there we had a different angle of view of the land spit with the birds at about the clouds line.
The trail continued on south, into the fog. We reached the trail junction with the Drake's Head Trail and the Sunset Beach Trail where we considered to turn around. Because we didn't have a break we actually made it there sooner than we had expected, so we decided to continue on to Sunset Beach, where the trail marked on our map ended, or at least as close as we could go.
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| Sunset Beach Trail |
Most of the flanking vegetation here was of dry grasses with irregular patches of low bushes. On one of those bushes an American goldfinch was perching.
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| American Goldfinch |
Between the dry grasses near the trail bloomed the pennyroyal - an exotic species of wild mint. A small butterfly was enjoying this unseasonal end of summer meal.
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| Pennyroyal, Mentha pulegium |
Another, bathtub-size pond was west of the trail, between us and the estuary below. The pond was nearly covered with duckweed. Consistent with the other ponds, there were no birds there either.
A bit further away there was a relatively fresh mound of dung by the trail. I don't know what animal had left it there, possibly a raccoon. What did catch my attention was a large, black beetle that showed keen interest in that fresh dung. It was a dung beetle, but I don't know of what species.
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| Dung Beetle |
At last we started descending toward Sunset Beach. Just before meeting Drake's Estero again there was a long and mucky lagoon, separated from the estuary water by a wide mud bar.
More than half of that lagoon was covered with aquatic vegetation. Like the ponds we passed earlier, it was very quiet. We couldn't see any wildlife activity anywhere.
There were some wildflowers there. Not many, but enough to please me. Small shrubs of Oregon gumplant decorated the trail side with their yellow, sunflower-like blossom.
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| Oregon Gumplant, Grindelia stricta |
When we were almost level with the lagoon we did see a bird - a solitary great egret stood motionless in the vegetation near the lagoon's distant shore.
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| Great Egret |
We scanned the aquatic vegetation and spotted a great blue heron sitting down, almost invisible, not too far from the egret.
The official trail ended with a termite-eaten old bench looking over the estuary's mud flat. The mud flats were devoid of any wildlife activity that we could see and the waterline was too far away. Pappa Quail was ready to turn around but I prompted him to continue a bit further on a narrow foot path that cut through the vegetation along the edge of the mud flat.
I soon realized that that foot path was not used by feet only - two mountain bikers came from behind us and passed us going south along the narrow strip of earth between the cliff and the estuary. They greeted us as the passed, and soon they disappeared ahead.
We found a place with some large rocks and sat down for our long desired break. At last, we were also seeing some more birds. Not many, but different species of what we've seen so far.
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| Wimbrel |
A few large shorebirds scouted the mud and the shallow water. They were of two differently shaped bills, specialized to pick different prey.
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| Marbled Godwit |
A few ring-billed gulls were also present at that shore. They seemed to be wading lazily enough but all of a sudden, a drama ensued when two of the gulls took off to the air in loud screams. One of them was holding what looked like a long worm in its bill and the other was chasing it, hoping, I assume, to relieve the other gull of its catch.
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| Ring-billed Gulls |
I don't speak gull but if to trust the 'Finding Nemo' movie interpreters, the chasing gull was no doubt shouting, "mine! mine!" They did some impressive aerobatics until eventually they flew out of our sight.
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| Ring-billed Gulls |
Pappa Quail didn't want to continue any further but I wanted to explore a bit more along the coastline, so I left him sitting and moved by myself a little bit more down the water along the base of the cliff. The strip of land there was very narrow, and littered with large rocks, some of them with very interesting erosion patterns.
The area closer to the water had deep mud covered with mucky algae, so I tried avoiding it. The area closer to the cliff had many of those hard to traverse rocks, most of which were covered with dead and rotting seaweed which reeked powerfully.
I navigated carefully the thin line between the rocks and the mud and it was worth my while because there were different wildflowers blooming on that part of the trail at the cliff side.
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| Coast Buckwheat, Eriogonum latifolium |
One of the sweet surprises of this trip for me was a blooming dudleya that poked its flowers from behind other rock vegetation at the lower part of the cliff. I couldn't get very close to see its rosette of leaves, though.
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| Rock Lettuce, Dudleya sp. |
It looked like I could go on further but I didn't want to let Pappa Quail wait for too long so at some point I turned around and started heading back to where he was sitting.
A western gull that perched on one of the rocks near the water jumped into the estuary and started swimming along the shore for some distance, following me as I carefully moved between the rocks and the mud. I don't know if it hoped I'd feed him, but of so, he was soon disappointed and stopped following me.
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| Western Gull |
Looking north, it seemed that the clouds continued to dissipate. I found Pappa Quail ready to continue. He got up and we started back along the narrow path leading to the main trail.
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| Drake's Estero |
A large, solitary raven was standing near the trail and as we passed by, he didn't fly away but started crowing loudly.
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| Raven |
The pair of bikers came up from behind. They told us that there was indeed a way to get all the way to the ocean during low tide. Well, I'll keep it in mind for the next time I visit Point Reyes.
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| Silverweed Cinquefoil, Potentilla anserina |
Pappa Quail stopped - a small bird was posing atop one of the bushes on the side. It was a cute little savannah sparrow.
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| Savannah Sparrow |
We reached the bench that marked the official trail and this time I took a closer look at it. The person for his memoriam this bench was placed here had died in 2006. I don't know how long after his death was that bench placed there, but even assuming it was shortly after his passing, 19 years is an awfully short time for a wood piece of furniture to deteriorate to such a pitiful state. The ocean side conditions can be very abrasive.
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| In Memoriam Bench |
near the bench bloomed some skunkweed that I have missed going past it before. The flowers were tiny lilac, and pretty. It didn't have any offensive smell so I'm note sure what gave it its name. Perhaps whatever scent it had was drowned by the odor of the rotting seaweed that hung thickly in the air and saturated my nostrils.
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| Skunkweed, Navarretia squarrosa |
Soon we were passing the lagoon again, where we saw the great egret and the sitting great blue heron exactly where they were before. Then I detected the long neck of yet another great blue heron sticking out of the tall, dry grass on the hill side and pointed it out to Pappa Quail, who quickly documented the big bird as it started moving slowly away up the hill.
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| Great Blue Heron |
Back with his attention on the trail, Pappa Quail saw a large, orange dragonfly and pointed it out to me. The large insect was so motionless that at first I was sure it was dead, but then as we passed by, it flew away.
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| Dragonfly |
A turkey vulture passed us overhead as we made our way up the hill. Pappa Quail didn't bother but the large scavenger was so close to us that I was able to take a nice photo of the majestic bird.
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| Turkey Vulture |
Once again we were up the cliff looking over Drake's Estero. Now that most of the clouds drifted off, we could feel the heat of the direct sun. Finally, the day was getting warm, even on the verge of hot.
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| Drake's Estero |
For the most part we walked without stopping, since we were going back on the same trail that we went out on. We did stop however, when Pappa Quail sighted a northern harrier patrolling the coastal scrub for any visible prey.
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| Northern Harrier, male |
I also stopped when I saw a single blooming blue-eyed grass that i somehow missed on our way out. Blue-eyed grass is a relatively early season bloomer. Seeing one blooming so late was quite a surprise.
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| Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum |
After we passed the intersection to Drake's Head again there were all of a sudden many other hikers and bicycle riders on the trail. I guess that once the day had warmed up, also more people warmed up to hiking.
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| Drake's Estero |
On or way back I also had the opportunity to take more photos of flowers that didn't come out quite right in the lower light of the overcast morning.
We also didn't stop at the cattle ponds on the way back, but I did notice that the snowy egret that was so far earlier had since moved closer to the trail.
We reached the lonely eucalyptus tree again. There wasn't any question of stopping there of course, but I did notice the patch of naked lady lilies that was right next to the tree.
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| Estero Trail |
As we moved past the lonely eucalyptus I went close to it and tried to photograph the bees going in and out of their hive place. I snapped a few shots, then moved away quickly before the bees discovered I was there and became hostile.
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| Honey Bees |
We reached the last curve of the trail before descending downhill to cross the estuary. Now that the clouds were gone the area looked much more pleasant and less gloomy.
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| Drake's Estero crossing |
On the way down to the water I was able to get better photos of the coast twinberry bush. The shiny black berries wrapped in the bright red bracts are pretty enough, but there were also some flowers blooming on that bush as well.
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| Coast Twinberry, Lonicera involucrata |
Despite the sunshine and the improved weather conditions we saw no new birds from the estuary bridge. The water was higher and closer though, the tide was rolling in.
On the other side I spotted a few California poppy flowers. The California poppy remains closed in overcast, wet weather and opens up when it's sunny.
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| California Poppy , Eschscholzia californica |
We ascended the trail through the forest. Here too, the sunshine didn't bring out any new birds. We made our way back up at a quick pace, with hardly any pauses.
Now that the fog was all but a long gone memory it was possible to see the view from the high, grassy trail on the last leg of our hike. We could see the line of dark green bushes and trees that marked the creek below the ridge we were walking on.
Down below was a large, solitary Monterey cypress. I don't know if it was of the trees that were brought there or if it was naturally there, but I loved seeing its dark, regal stature over the savanna of dry grass.
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| Monterey Cypress, Hesperocyparis macrocarpa |
We completed the hike tired and content. It was longer than we had planned it to be, and we reached almost to the end of Drake's Estero, walking through a number of different habitats and seeing much of what that part of Point Reyes had to offer at that time of year. It was the perfect hike to end a lovely weekend getaway with Pappa Quail in nature. I'd love to return there some day and go all the way to the beach, though. Once again I was leaving Point Reyes with the taste of more. It is a large place with so much to see!
