We hiked most of the Olema Valley Trail on this mostly clear, weirdly clouded day after a rainy week in mid-December.
Also see 12/19 pics.
Relatively level (20' to 480' in elevation), this trail would provide a 10.6-mile out-and-back hike when the creek is low enough to cross (we stopped at the creek today, making for a roughly 7-mile round-trip). You could do shorter segments by starting at the Randall Spur where it crosses Highway 1 and heading either towards Five Brooks (north) or Dogtown (south), or using the Dogtown entrance and heading north.
For this hike, transport yourself to the Five Brooks trailhead and follow the signs to Olema Valley Trail, which takes you quickly into deeply-forested Inverness Ridge and up to the highest elevation of 440 feet, with occasional views across the valley to the Bolinas Ridge.
I had expected this trail to literally follow the valley—and therefore thought it likely to become impassable somewhere fairly early on because of the previous week's rains, but the trail was mostly at around 220 feet altitude and mostly dry.
The scenery was highly varied; after the deep forest, we came out onto lovely little meadows, frog ponds, and occasional surprising vistas across larger spaces—the usual Point Reyes magic, enhanced by the life brought by a good rainstorm.
We were stopped by a relatively shallow Olema Creek—deep enough to get our shoes wet and make for an unpleasant 3.5 miles back (we hiked the rest of the trail from the Dogtown entrance the next weekend).
We saw Banana Slugs and Fire-Bellied Newts (below), Turkey Vultures, Red-Tailed Hawks, a Red-Shouldered Hawk, a Sharp-Shinned Hawk and an unidentified Accipiter, and two or three Peregrine Falcons (also American Kestrels the next week). We heard frogs and alligator lizards, and saw and heard a Stellar's Jay doing a very good Red-Tailed Hawk imitation.
You can expect to see Fallow, Axis, and Black-Tailed Deer, and as always in Point Reyes, Bobcats, Cougars, skunks, raccoons...
The last few Tule Fog pictures below were taken on Highway 1 north of Five Brooks. There are Fallow Deer invisible in the fog in these pictures.
Click a pic...
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