The next morning Michael and I instantly got moving. As always, we didn’t have much of a plan but we did want to see the Golden Gate Bridge. After thinking about a few different options, we decided to not actually cross the bridge since we would have to backtrack to get to it just to go back north. That or cross the bridge twice. Instead, we drove around the area and decided to cross the Richmond Bridge, seeing the Golden Gate in the near distance. On the other side of the city were some military ruins that we heard about. After multiple attempts of trying to get to the road that would lead us there, we ditched the idea and ended up back on route to go north. I think the issue we ran into was that the main road was closed and we couldn’t figure out another way around.

Here’s when I finally got to touch the Pacific Ocean for the first time. We pulled off the road toward Muir Beach and walked around for a little while. The weather was a bit dreary and not the warmest, so we headed back to the van to make some lunch. Apparently we were on the hunt for some beach time that day (regardless of the weather) which led us to Stinson Beach where we tried to lay out for awhile. It was less cloudy here with the sun peaking through, but after about an hour or so it was time to go to our day’s highlight (although we didn’t know it at the time.)

Easily one of my top hikes of the roadtrip was Alamere Falls located in Point Reyes National Seashore. Apparently there are multiple trails that can get you here. The trail we were told to look for was easy enough to find, however the actual location cut off from the trail after about 3.5 miles and we had to bushwhack our way through a mix of large bushes and tall grasses to get there. Luckily enough there was someone who had already been before and we were able to take their directions – right place right time kind of deal. The actual hike to the falls was so serene too. It felt like we had been transported to Hawaii (or what I imagine to be Hawaii.)

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We walked along the ocean up on a cliff for awhile and then through the woods that were littered with plants on plants – tons of ferns and huge trees. There was some mild elevation change but enough to where we stopped multiple times to cool off and drink some water. Closer to our destination was a cool ‘mountain lake’ where you could see the ocean in the distance through a break in the land. To tell you where we actually ended up, Alamere Falls is a freshwater waterfall actually known as a tidefall that drops about 30 feet over a shale cliff into the ocean.

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We stayed around here for a pretty decent amount of time and then trekked back to our tiny home on wheels. After a little over 4 miles back to the van, we hopped in and started toward our journey up the coast on Highway 1. Eventually we pulled off at one of the pull offs overlooking the ocean, made some dinner, and had our first of multiple nights with the sound of waves in the background.