In my book, Drake's Beach is one of the most special beaches in the world…read more
On a personal level, I think this is the first beach I ever brought my daughter to. And, even after enduring the long three hour drive each way, she asked to come back many, many times.
The first time we came here, it was to see the tidepools, which are about half a mile down the beach. To be real, these aren't the best tide pools in the area, but they are probably the least crowded.
A few weeks later, I came back to hike alone. At sunset, as I was walking back to my car, I noticed that the beach was covered in huge black rocks that I hadn't noticed on my way out.
I thought, "That's weird." Then, as I was walking right next to one of the rocks, it made a loud noise, and charged at me.
That's how I found out what an elephant seal is. I must have come during mating season, because this was definitely a huge male alpha seal.
I screamed, and ran away from the creature, having no idea (at the time) what it was.
Fast forward to this week (after I've read an entire book on elephant seals), and there are no male seals on the beach. It turns out that they swim to Alaska twice a year, and only come back to this beach to mate and molt.
Currently, as I write this in mid-May, the same area of beach is covered in pups which have been recently weaned by their mothers. They are molting and getting ready for their first big swim, where many of them will become food for great white sharks.
The ones that are lucky enough to survive are likely to eventually return to this same beach to mate and molt.
Aside from the tidepools and elephant seals, Drake's Beach is the best place that I know of to see the famous cliffs of Point Reyes from down below. (To see the cliffs and seals from above, take the Chimney Rock trail.)
The cliffs are pretty much always crumbling. Every time I visit this beach, I see small rocks falling from the cliffs. This is a great place to teach children about erosion and the danger of hiking too close to the tops of cliffs.
Swimming at Drake's Beach is not a good idea. In addition to the aforementioned great white sharks that live in the area, there are also occasional rip tides. People have been swept out to sea from this beach, so it's not a good idea to turn your back on the water.
But if you walk carefully along the shoreline, you might observe live purple fuzzy sand dollars, bright blue velella velella, clear gobs of jellyfish, or all kinds of other things.
In good weather, you can build sand castles, or even participate in the Annual Sand Sculpture Contest at Drake's Beach, which typically occurs in late summer.
There is a visitor center and store at Drake's Beach (named after Ken C. Patrick, the first NPS Ranger ever killed in the line of duty), but they have very limited hours-- typically only a few hours on weekends. Since I tend to visit outside of peak hours, I've never been inside the store (yet).
This beach is on the opposite side of the Point Reyes peninsula from North Beach and South Beach. Theoretically, on a clear day with good binoculars, you might be able to see Alamere Falls to the southeast.