Every Trail Tells a Story
Bull Point
Pastoral Point Reyes-green pastures meeting quiet bays.
Birding and seal-watching in Creamery and Schooner Bays.
A walk through ranching history soon to return fully to nature.
With its “green pastures” and “still waters” the walk across Bull Point has a few highlights that recall the 23rd Psalm.
Herefords and Black Angus graze the green pastures of the headlands. This is cow country, and has been since the 1850s. Schooners maneuvered into Drakes Estero, took on a cargo of fine butter, and returned to San Francisco, a ready market for dairy products produced on Point Reyes. (Note: In a historic agreement between ranchers and the national park service, most cattle will be removed from Point Reyes, including those on Bull Point, by 2026.)
The still waters around Bull Point include Creamery Bay, Schooner Bay and Drakes Estero. Bring your field glasses for birding, as well as to watch for deer browsing the headlands, and for harbor seals and sea lions, which often swim into the estero.
Bull Point Trail traverses a wide headland between two arms of Drakes Estero-Schooner Bay and Creamery Bay. The mostly level path (an old farm road) crosses the grassy headlands and offers the opportunity to glimpse lots of wildlife, as well as plenty of grazing cows. The trail crosses F Ranch so figure on crossing paths with some cattle; just be patient, and let them pass.
The pastoral calm is striking, but appearances can be deceiving. In the 19th century, this was no sleepy backwater. Ranches thrived here, butter churned and packed in firkins, schooners landing daily on Schooner Bay to haul the goods to San Francisco. For a time, Point Reyes butter was the talk of the city-the gold standard of dairy. Bull Point was part of a peninsula that buzzed with economic activity, even as the quiet bays gave the impression of timeless stillness.
Today, Bull Point is more about bird calls than schooner whistles. Hawks circle overhead, shorebirds forage on the mudflats, and the winds carry only the lowing of cattle and the whisper of the estero’s tides. Walk here and you step into a landscape that feels at once timeless and fleeting, a pastoral chapter in Point Reyes history soon to be written into memory.
From Highway 1 in Olema, turn west on Bear Valley Road and drive 2.2 miles to meet Sir Francis Drake Highway. Turn left and proceed 10.8 miles to the signed parking area on the left side of the highway.
Bull Point Trail (an old ranch road) crosses a pasture and travels 0.3 mile to a cattle gate. The trail (lengths of which are retiring ranch road), curves south and ascends gently along Creamery Bay. Watch for the seals that haul-out on the bay mudflats.
The path curves south into the middle of Bull Point. Mostly level, the route is over country open and all but treeless-a melancholy scene on an overcast day. The path reaches its high point-such as it is-at 100 feet in elevation at about 1.1 miles from the trailhead.
Nearing the water, observe Schooner Bay to your left, Creamery Bay to the right. Those poles thrusting up from the muddy bottom of Schooner Bay belong to oyster farmers: many a mollusk is harvested from these waters.
Bull Point Trail ends at the edge of a low bluff. A faint trail leads down to a narrow rock beach.