Point Reyes Self-Guided Driving Tour

Experience the breathtaking majesty of northern California with this self-guided driving tour of Point Reyes National Seashore. Discover fascinating maritime history at the Point Reyes Lighthouse and the Point Reyes Lifesaving Station, then turn back the clock even further and hear true tales of the famed privateer Sir Francis Drake, who landed on these shores hundreds of years ago! Plus, take a detour up to Tomales Point for even more unforgettable ocean views!
After booking, check your email to download the separate Audio Tour Guide App by Action, enter your unique password, and access your tour. These steps require good internet/Wi-Fi access. From there, follow the audio instructions and the route.

New, extra validity — now yours for an entire year! Use multiple times over multiple trips!

Meeting Point

1 Bear Valley Visitor Center Access Road

1 Bear Valley Visitor Center Access Road, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956, USA

After booking the tour, search your email for the phrase "Set up your self-guided tour now." Follow these instructions NOW to finish setting up the tour while you have Wi-Fi/data. Do NOT wait until you are onsite.

What's included:

• Easy-to-use app: download Action’s Tour Guide App onto your phone
• Great value: purchase per car, not per person. More affordable than bus or guided tours!
• Engaging storytelling: Uncover unique tales and thrilling history for a memorable journey!
• Perfect narrator: nothing can beat listening to a great voice. Proven with tons of rave reviews!
• Offline maps: no signal, no problem! Works perfectly without cellular or wifi.
• Comprehensive route and stops: See it all, miss nothing, leave no stone unturned!
• Go at your own pace: Start anytime, pause anywhere, enjoy breaks for snacks and photos freely!
• Hands-free: audio stories play on their own based on your location. Easy to use!

Not included:

• Foods & Drinks

What to expect:

Duration: between 2 hours and 3 hours

Bear Valley Visitor Center

1 Bear Valley Visitor Center Access Road, Marin County, 94956, California

Welcome to Point Reyes National Seashore! This National Park has miles of unbelievable beach vistas, incredible stories of those who lived here, and of course… that famous Point Reyes Lighthouse way down at the tip of it all. Let’s get started!
Note: This 30-mile-long tour covers the essentials of Point Reyes National Seashore in 2-3 hours.

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Tomales Point

Tomales Point, California 94937, USA

Just ahead, we’ll have the option to detour to the remote and windswept beaches of Tomales Point, one of the most popular destinations on the peninsula. The detour takes 45 minutes round trip. You’ll also want to budget a little time for walking around and taking photos

10 minutes

Drakes Estero

Drakes Estero, California, USA

The Drakes Estero is coming up soon. If you’re wondering what an Estero is -- don’t worry. It’s just a fancy term for a marshy inlet. If you’d like to walk a 2.5 mile round-trip trail through the estero, there’s a trailhead just ahead. I’ll point it out. In a minute, you’ll cross coastal grasslands and enjoy a scenic footbridge stretching over the bay.

10 minutes

Drakes Estero Trailhead

Inverness, CA 94937, USA

If you’d like to hike the Drakes Estero Trail, turn left. Otherwise, continue driving.

5 minutes

Cypress Tree Tunnel

17400 Sir Francis Darke Blv, Point Reyes National Seashore North District Operations Center, Inverness, 94937-9729, California

Check out all of those cyprus trees ahead! That’s our next stop. The trees form a sort of tunnel. Where does it go? To the historic KPH Radio station! Uhh.. random, right? In the early 1900s, Morse code radio stations went up all up and down the United States coast. The Radio Corporation of America, or RCA, figured out where these stations should be to properly and efficiently communicate with ships at sea. One of the spots RCA chose was right here at Point Reyes! In 1929, they built the station, but they wanted to do justice to the beautiful landscape surrounding it. So they planted rows of cypress trees leading up to the new station.

10 minutes

Point Reyes Beach

Point Reyes Beach, California 94937, USA

Coming up soon is Point Reyes Beach, boasting 11 miles of sand and fabulous ocean views. To make it even better, people often report gray whale sightings from this beach in the winter and spring!

10 minutes

Drakes Beach

Drakes Beach Rd, At Point Reyes National Seashore, California

Coming up soon is Drakes Beach. It’s a popular beach amongst visitors here because it faces Drakes Bay. That means the winds aren’t as strong and the waves aren’t as intense as on the ocean-facing side. The beach boasts some white sandstone cliffs as a backdrop too.

10 minutes

Chimney Rock Trail Head

Chimney Rock Trail, Inverness, CA 94937, USA

To take a quick detour to the lifesaving station, see an overlook for elephant seals, and hike to Chimney Rock for ocean views, turn left at the fork.

10 minutes

Historic Point Reyes Lifeboat Station

Point Reyes Station, CA 94956, USA

The first life-saving station in Point Reyes sat on a plot of ranch land very close to the point at the end of this peninsula. It began operations in 1878. The station leader was called the “keeper”; the staff were called “surfmen.” They’d patrol the beaches looking for wrecks and listening for voices through the fog. And the system worked! That first station saved people from 14 major shipwrecks over the 37 years it was there.

10 minutes

Elephant Seal Overlook

Chimney Rock Rd, Inverness, CA 94937, USA

Hundreds of thousands of northern elephant seals used to call the Pacific Ocean home. But then European settlers discovered they could use the seal blubber for oil. And by 1892, only around 75 individual seals were left up and down the entire coast of North America. Down from hundreds of thousands! Mexico and the US Government federally protected them in the 1920s, and thank goodness: the elephant seal population slowly boomed once again! In 1981, the first breeding pair was back at Point Reyes. And now, there are somewhere around 200,000 northern elephant seals along the Pacific Coast of the US and Mexico.

10 minutes

Sea Lion Overlook

16375 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Inverness, CA 94937, USA

Coming up in just a moment will be Sea Lion Overlook. Here, 54 steps lead down to a coastal view you won’t soon forget… because it’s usually overflowing with sea lions! But how do we tell seals and sea lions apart? To identify one, check for ear flaps and folded-in back flippers. Sea lions use these back flippers to shuffle upright when trying to move on land. Males are about 8 feet long and females about 6 feet. Breeding season for sea lions is between May and August. During this time, the sea lions stay on the beach for as long as possible, defending their territory. This requires them to fast, and use their accumulated blubber to sustain them for months. They vie for females through calls, barks, and territorial fights with other males. For the rest of the year, sea lions roam the ocean, feeding. Females have a 12-month gestation period, usually giving birth in June or July

10 minutes

South Beach Overlook

Lighthouse Visitor Center, 27000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Inverness, CA 94937, USA

We’re coming up on the parking lot to see the South Beach Overlook and the Point Reyes Lighthouse. This is the only parking lot for the lighthouse, so I’d recommend parking once we get there. You can park on the street too, if the lot is full, but street parking near the lighthouse gets a little congested, especially if you’re here on a weekend.

10 minutes

Leaning Tree

Lighthouse Visitor Center, 27000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Inverness, CA 94937, USA

Pretty soon, we’ll see a little tunnel of cypress trees not unlike the cypress tunnel by the radio station we saw earlier. They’re easy to spot because, as you may have noticed, there are very few trees here! If you cross under the tunnel of trees that bends toward the side of the hill and just beyond, you’ll see what people call the Leaning Tree. It’s a cypress that leans over the path, but doesn’t seem to ever fall.

10 minutes