Rodeo Beach and Costal Trail

We went to Rodeo Beach and Costal trail on Wednesday, November 30 on a clear morning. 

This place was apparently a surfing spot, many surfers in the water, and some in the parking lot changing in or out of wet suite. South of the beach, there is an island, bird island, which has a hole through it. The trailhead is at the north end of the beach, well marked. We walked over there and started our hiking.

Shortly we deviated from the trail, and walked toward the coastline. Blue sky, blue water, black rocks in the water and red vegetations on the shore, water fowls on the rocks in the ocean, we lingered around this portion of the shoreline for about 30 minutes.

After many photos and selfies, we returned to the trail, and started our hike. The trail is easy to see with assist from Google map. There were many birds, mostly various types of sparrows in the bushes of the hills. Despite the fact the hills here are not high at all, the tallest in the area is Hill 88, which is about 1000ft, there are no trees, and more like above tree line in other locations. 

We hiked to the summit of Hill 88.

Clouds were moving from south, and their shadows made the mountains mysterious. The mountains themselves looked desolated due to extended drought. However we had unobstructed view of  the beach, the coastline,  anywhere on the trail.

Hiking toward Hill 88, the summit is the end of the trail

We took a break at the summit and retuned via the bike route, and then walked toward the Rodeo lagoon east to the beach, total of 8km in 3 and half hours. We pretty much had the whole trail to ourselves the whole time, we saw one hiker at the summit, and another hiker on our way down.  It was around noon by then, and we had a picnic lunch, sitting on a log on the beach, watching waves breaking, surfers surfing, sea gulls gliding, and took some fun selfies with Lily feeding me :).

After lunch, we went to Point Bonita light house and seal rock nearby, as planned. The tunnel to the light house at point Bonita was closed but we had a good view of Golden Gate Bridge from west, and the seals on rocks in the cove.

View of Golden Gate Bridge from Po

Seal Rock