Rift Zone Trail
Rift Zone Trail south of the Five Brooks Horse Camp is closed until further notice. The southernmost portion of the Rift Zone Trail between the Five Brooks (formerly known as Stewart) Horse Camp and the Stewart Trail will be temporarily closed due a severe washout of the trail. This is a very small section of the trail. See the park service website for details.
Trail length: 4.3 miles each way, out and back
Time: 3-4 hours
Terrain: pasture, oak, fir, bay forests, ponds, meadows, creek
Restroom? Yes, at Bear Valley Visitor Center, Stewart Horse Camp, and Five Brooks
Parking: Large lots at Bear Valley Visitor Center and Five Brooks
Kid friendly? Yes
Dates visited: 10/21/18, 6/26/19, 3/22/20, 12/21/20
Favorite plants on this trail: California Bay (Umbellularia californica)
This is a trail to admire beautiful oaks and bays and expansive views while walking through the open pasture and meadows of Olema Valley. The Rift Zone Trail is mostly flat, traversing pasture and forest. Most of the trail runs through land purchased in 1946 by the Vedanta Society. The land continues to be privately owned even after the National Seashore was established however the Vedanta Society allows the public access to the trail. Starting at Bear Valley, majestic lichen-covered oaks and California bays line the trail. Stay alert for profuse poison oak at the beginning of the trail. The trail passes through Olema Valley and right through the center of an expansive pasture grazed by black angus cattle. About midway through the trail, a pond offers a quiet place for reflection and rest. Forested areas are filled with sword ferns and offer shade on warm days. You’ll cross a small creek as you near the Stewart Horse Camp. It’s a great place to stop for a picnic lunch.
Black glossy fruits of the forest
Every fruit below is edible except the nightshade. Nightshade berries have a strikingly beautiful pearlescent sheen. They look alluring but they are toxic, particularly the unripe green ones. Admire them but don’t eat them. Like their namesake, ripe black Coffeeberry fruits have a coffee-like flavor, but don’t eat too many as they are a laxative. Coffeeberry fruit starts as green and turns red then black. Bite into it and you’ll discover two dark seeds. Prolific in Point Reyes, coffeeberry shrubs are 3 to 12 feet tall, typically 3 to 6 feet.
The fruit of the California Bay tree is related to the avocado and similarly has a soft fleshy interior with a large seed. The skin starts as green and evolves to dark eggplant purple, nearly black. The flesh is edible but rather bland. You can dry and roast the bay seeds to eat. Ethnobotanist, Jolie Egert Elan makes a delicious Kahlua-like drink with roasted bay seeds. Last but not least, sweet and juicy huckleberries are prolific in Point Reyes in the summer and well into the fall.
You are not allowed to collect specimens or to collect berries to take home, but picking and eating berries along the way is perfectly fine.
Stewart Horse Camp
The Rift Zone trail runs through Stewart Horse Camp. It’s a great place to stop for a restroom break or to have lunch at one of the picnic tables. Who knew you could camp with your horse? Naturally, you will encounter many horses on the trail and lots of horse poop. The etiquette is to stop and let the horse pass.
Volunteer Opportunity: PRNSA Field Institute
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.