California | Hiking in Point Reyes

Point Reyes is just a little north of San Francisco (about an hour and a half-ish) and if you live in the city, it’s totally worth the day trip to hang out in this enormous and absolutley stunning park! Or if you’re just heading up the Northern California coast, s t o p  h e r e.

We stopped here around lunch time so we could picnic and the kiddos could play outside after being in the car for a few hours. To be clear, eating on the beach with kids is never fun.  So we ate in the back of our car, before walking up to see the lighthouse. I’m pretty sure Brecken appreciated that his salami wasn’t covered in sand, so… winning!

It’s a paved road to walk up a hill towards the lighthouse. Once you get up the hill, you have to walk like a billion stairs down to get to lighthouse, which is nestled on a rocky cliff. So no. My babies weren’t going. But it looked pretty from where we stopped!

We took the short drive over to the Chimney Rock trail head, which is the hike you want to do! All the views and it’s not a strenuous walk. Hindsight we should have taken the Ergo for Brecken, always take the Ergo! Because it was about two miles round trip and both boys were begging for a ride before we even turned around. They did, however, love being able to run up and down the trails, which were pretty central on the peninsula. The trail, however, isn’t wide enough to push a stroller on it.

This was a beautiful hike with a stunning coast line. The picture of my little ones running up the trail inspired this Instagram post. Because while my babies wanted to be carried, ate some dirt – even through fit or two in the dirt – and really don’t care about the view, I do. And I love seeing their faces with that beautiful background. Because I want them to have a sense of adventure, of wonder.

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My husband has been making these super fun video of stuff we do, and hiking Point Reyes was a part of our Northern California road trip. The full trip is documented below, which includes Fern Canyon and Glass Beach (post coming soon!).