After San Francisco it was back to beach combing, this time in Point Reyes. I drove through a world of cows. There were fat cows, skinny cows, spotted cows, black cows, fenced in cows, and free roaming cows. I even found an escaped cow next to a broken fence. I wasn’t sure why I was driving through this bovine bevy but I don’t ask a lot of questions to begin with. Besides the cows there were other strange sights including four huge male elk just strutting through the fields like they owned the place, carrying with them the largest antlers I had ever seen. I guess they were lucky I wasn’t a hunter! I shot them instead with my camera. Gorgeous beasties.

I was unable to find a walkable beach, however at the end of one road I did find Elephant Seal Beach Overlook. It was a ¼ of a mile walk… and I was in no mood. The wind was blowing so hard that there were flying monkeys being slammed into the rocks ahead of me. Somehow I managed to slide out of the Jeep, after changing my clothes to jeans, a sweater, and my winter trench coat. I walked down the path, barricaded by handrails which I clung to whenever the wind threatened to tip me over. At one point the gales nearly threw me off my feet and I was grateful for those handrails! I couldn’t get that close to the seals but there they were, as promised… a beach full of bloated, enormous seals with funny noses. Of course I could only distinguish this by using the fantastic zooming abilities of the camera. Binoculars probably would have been helpful, still I did see something in the wild I never would have before! I went back to the Jeep nearly frozen. The cows stared at me as I left, wondering who I was and why I was there so late.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!