Drakes View Trail

Trail length: 2.0 miles, connector between the Inverness Ridge Trail and the Muddy Hollow Road Trail (via Bayview)
Terrain: dense bishop pine forest, slope
Restroom? No
Parking: parking lot at the top of Mt. Vision Road or at the Bayview Trailhead
Kid friendly? No, it’s 1.3 miles just to get to the trailhead
Dates visited: 8/14/18, 11/6/20, 1/9/21
Favorite plants on this trail: Bishop Pine (Pinus muricate)

The Drakes View trail is about the same distance (1.3 miles) from the Mt. Vision parking lot or Bayview Trailhead parking lot. The trail begins at about the midpoint of the Inverness Ridge Trail and descends steeply for 2 miles. It’s a soft trail to hike — most of the trail is padded with pine needles. The forest is densely carpeted with Bishop Pines. As you get closer to the Bayview Trail, you emerge from the pine forest and travel through sections of drier coastal scrub with Coffeeberry (Frangula californica) and Trailing Blackberry (Rubus ursinus), and wetter riparian terrain with alders and other water-loving plants.

Loop: Inverness Ridge, Drakes View, Bayview

For a 5-mile loop hike, start at the Bayview Trailhead parking lot. Take the Inverness Ridge Trail (1.3 miles) to the Drakes View Trail (2.0 miles) and return on the Bayview Trail (1.6 miles) back to the trailhead. This is the best direction for the loop. It puts you going downhill for the steep Drakes View trail.

Volunteer Opportunity: PRNSA Field Institute

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The Point Reyes National Seashore Association needs assistants for their Field Institute classes. You will spend a day training with PRNSA staff, then a couple of times a year you'll select the classes you'd like to help with. Shortly afterwards, you'll receive a confirmation of which ones you've been assigned. As a facilitator, you get to take the class for free. Normally, two facilitators help with every class. Duties include signing in class participants, making coffee (for indoor classes), talking briefly about PRNSA, and generally helping out as needed. I've been volunteering for about a year. It's a great experience to work with other facilitators and get to know the amazing field institute instructors.