2 min
Overview
The Kehoe Beach Trail is a 0.6-mile hike to a crashing Pacific Ocean, sandy beach, and millions-year-old rock formations. It is one of the few dog-friendly trails and beaches in Point Reyes National Seashore. Kehoe Beach itself is on the northwestern side of Point Reyes National Seashore, a 50-mile drive northwest of San Francisco. You can do this hike as a 1.2-mile out-and-back. This 2.5-mile route goes a bit further north along the beach to see the incredible rock formations and then south to visit the marsh before heading back. Start your hike from the Kehoe Beach Trailhead, heading west toward the ocean. The nearly flat dirt path parallels Kehoe Marsh for 0.6 miles along sprinkles of California poppy and non-native mustard. White-crowned sparrows (black and white striped head, brown and white feathers on its back) sing and flit among coyote brush. Kehoe Beach is named for the Kehoe family, who have been ranching on Point Reyes Peninsula since the 1920s and still operate a dairy known as “J Ranch.” The ranch is the northernmost of the alphabet letter-named Point Reyes Ranches. After California became a state in 1850, a San Francisco law firm acquired 50,000 acres of land on the peninsula and broke it up into alphabet-lettered parcels, starting with the letter A at the Point Reyes Headlands. The letters and parcels climbed north along the peninsula’s western seashore up to J where Kehoe Beach is now. Then the names turned south along the seashore’s eastern border, ending in W at Mount Wittenberg. In 1962, Congress and President John F. Kennedy officially created the Point Reyes National Seashore, eventually acquiring 71,000 acres of land. They made a deal with ranchers that the government would provide 25-30 year leases to the ranchers so they could continue ranching on the land. Today, over a dozen ranches raise beef and dairy cows at Point Reyes National Seashore. It is why you see (and smell) so many cows along the roads and trails at Point Reyes National Seashore. In 0.5 miles, reach a signed Y-junction
Trail Stats
3.9 km
30 m
20 m
5 m
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