Most individuals arriving at Limantour Seashore at Level Reyes understandably make straight for the ocean. However for these keen to make a low-tide detour earlier than they catch sight of the Pacific, some surprises await.
The “detour” is admittedly the Limantour Spit Path, which tracks behind the dunes alongside the Limantour Spit, the westward-running strip of sand that kinds Limantour Seashore. Behind the dunes, on the spit path, you gained’t discover crashing waves or seaside umbrellas. On a low-tide day, although, you may make a path all the way in which to the tip of the spit, simply throughout the water from Drake’s Head, and make a loop by returning alongside the seaside aspect.
On days with out this serendipitous mixture of things, you possibly can nonetheless take the spit path alongside a brief mile a method, crowded with coyote brush and lupine that may obscure the trail solely. Lengthy pants are a good suggestion if you wish to keep away from scratchy brushes with the comb. At in regards to the mile mark, what’s left of the path fades, and if the tide isn't fairly low, that is the place it ends. Water and suctioning mud flats within the shallows of the estero will stop your passage.
It is perhaps tempting to forge forward so far as doable throughout greater tides, however your solely manner out is again once more or over the dunes. It’s not an incredible concept to scramble over dunes towards the seaside for plenty of causes, amongst them the potential that you just’ll trample protected snowy plover nesting areas, and people little shorebirds have sufficient to cope with.
We’ve had the nice luck to be there just a few occasions when the tide was low sufficient to show walkable substrate to the top of the spit. The behind-the-dunes sightings on these fortuitous days have included squadrons of snowy white pelicans assembling within the estero that stretches alongside the landside of the Spit.
Pinnipeds of assorted persuasions additionally favor these calm waters, and when you do stroll throughout the mudflats, you may end up getting soaked by fountains of water, shot up by massive, reactive clams buried underfoot. Once they sense footfall, the clams pull again their siphons, ejecting a water spout. Additionally they appear to do that unprovoked, making the flats a pure fountain characteristic.
We’ve additionally encountered loss of life right here. Desiccated moon jellies, a dried-up leopard shark and the carcasses of many shorebirds function reminders of the circle of life.
The post-colonial names of lots of the options round us additionally mirror the darkish–gentle duality of this area. Drake’s Head lies simply throughout from the east aspect of the spit, named like so many different locales in our space after Sir Francis Drake, the pirate and slave dealer who took a break someplace round there. His six-week stopover has led to a lot hypothesis about simply precisely the place he stopped, and even an elaborate fraud involving a commemorative engraved brass plate “discovered” at Limantour itself. The plate was later uncovered as having been made within the Thirties as a prank by members of a consuming society.
The seaside itself bears the identify of a French fellow, Joseph Yves Limantour, whose ship met its finish there in 1841, though Limantour himself survived. He proceeded to make a collection of land grabs within the space and was ultimately tried and located responsible of fraud. The estero now named after Drake was additionally initially named after Limantour.
When you attain the sting of the spit named after Limantour, you possibly can see the place the waters of Limantour and Drakes esteros and Drakes Bay meet, in a roiling, boiling chaos of waves getting into seemingly each path. That is no place to enter the water, however it's the place Limantour Seashore begins (or ends, relying in your perspective). Right here’s the place you possibly can flip round or loop round, making your manner again to the place you began with the Pacific roaring in your ears.
Getting there
Comply with the indicators on the highway at Level Reyes Nationwide Seashore, from Bear Valley Highway to Limantour Highway and to Limantour Seashore. Park in the principle car parking zone. Comply with the often busy path towards the ocean, and simply earlier than it turns into deep sand take a proper onto the path. Canine usually are not allowed on the Limantour Spit Path, however they're allowed on Limantour Seashore. Strolling your complete spit there and again once more alongside the seaside is about 5 miles. There are vault bathrooms at Limantour.
Emily Willingham is a Marin science journalist, e-book creator and biologist. You'll find her on Twitter @ejwillingham.