If you plan to go to Point Reyes for a weekend hike, it never hurts to take your guide book. Just remember to take it with a grain of salt. The hikes they often highlight, while always gorgeous, also tend to be the most popular ones because, for one thing, they’re highlighted in all the guide books.

I recently went to the Palomarin Trailhead for a walk on the always-crowded Coast Trail. It was a Saturday, and I knew this place could get busy on weekends, but the parking lot was already full at 10 a.m. In the middle of the lot were two car owners trading insurance information after getting into a fender bender. On a day intended for communing with nature, these two ended up communing with Geico.

This doesn’t have to happen. Point Reyes has 150 miles of trails. And a great place to find one that suits you is the Point Reyes website, which very helpfully describes dozens of possible hikes, breaking them down by length of hike, desired habitat and trailhead.

Something I have found is that many of the less crowded Point Reyes hikes involve forays along the ridges and through the forests, because these areas are often NOT the destination of people wanting to go to a place known as a “national seashore.” They may dream of sweeping coastal vistas, diving pelicans, maybe a peek at the elusive Farallones. They do not want selfies with five-fingered ferns. 

When you head to one of these forest-oriented hikes, you’ll notice a difference as soon as you reach the trailhead parking lot. At Five Brooks, which is off of Olema Road, you could park almost sideways and no one would even notice. This is the best trailhead to access Greenpicker Trail, one of my favorite, never-busy hikes in Point Reyes.

The hike I’d like to describe here is one that begins at the Sky Trailhead. It’s a moderate 6-mile loop, and on a recent hike, I saw a total of eight people. This hike, while beginning high on a ridge, actually winds down to near the coast, venturing from forest to scrub and then back up into the forest.

If you’ve ever been out to Limantour Beach, you have driven past Sky Trailhead. It is roughly 3.3 miles from the Limantour Road turnoff. You’ll see it on the left not too far before the crest of Limantour Road. The parking lot here is fairly small but hopefully you’ll find a space. It is also a launching point for those hiking to Mount Wittenberg, the highest point in the national seashore. Also, those camping at Sky Camp, 1.4 miles away, might be parked here.

The Mount Wittenberg hike is in fact one of two recommended by Point Reyes that launch from Sky Trailhead, the other being the strenuous 9.5 mile walk that hooks up with the Woodward Valley Trail and then the Fire Lane Trail. This is part of the joy of Point Reyes: the ability to connect various trails into a hike that suits you.

That is how I chose this hike. Looking at the map, I decided to take the Sky Trail (0.8 mile) to the Fire Lane Trail (2.3 miles), then turn off to Laguna Trail (0.8 mile), rest, then get back on Laguna Trail after a turnoff (1.4 miles) and then complete the loop on the Bayview Trail (0.7 mile).

To start, you’ll head south along the Sky Trail. On a summer morning, you may experience the pleasure of a thick, drippy fog that can often linger close to, or even beyond, midday. This first leg begins with a moderate uphill on a well-maintained fire road that levels out somewhat. It is a relaxing saunter that lets you enjoy the surrounding Douglas firs, oaks and bay trees.

When I recently took this hike, I ran into a group of three hikers who were taking the same loop but in the opposite direction. They warned me that Fire Lane Trail, the next leg of our journey, was a big wet, overgrown mess.

“We got soaked up to here,” one of them told me, pointing to his midsection while describing this overgrowth as though it was so dense it would require a machete to get through.

As I reached Fire Lane Trail, I quickly realized that calling this stretch of trail a “lane” is generous. It is a narrow single track that winds along for 2.3 miles as it slowly descends toward the coast. 

Several parts were indeed very overgrown with grasses up to 6 feet high hanging over the trail. This was especially true in the morning, when the grasses were still very wet. But there were only a couple of points where we had to concentrate to find the route. I brushed by poison oak at points, and long pants are definitely recommended.
 
Nevertheless, I was alone and literally in the thick of nature, and I could easily bat my way through with a hiking pole. The only people I saw on this entire stretch were three kids with sticks, slashing their way towards us through the brush that dwarfed them.

After 2.3 miles, I descended a good distance out of the forest and reached the point where Fire Lane Trail meets Laguna Trail. This is a notable juncture, as here you experience two things: Just above the juncture, you get your first peek at the ocean (fog permitting), and as you come to the turnoff you get a nice blast of wind — welcome to hiking on the Point Reyes coastline! (Note: You are far more likely to avoid the big winds when up in the woods.)

I ran into two more hikers, who were headed on Fire Lane Trail down to the beach.
 
The beach was an option — Fire Lane Trail takes a left here and is a mile down to the ocean — but I kept on my planned loop going right onto the Laguna Trail. I made my way for 0.8 mile, which took me near the Youth Hostel and Environmental Education Center. 

Here begins the uphill portion of the hike as the Laguna Trail takes a hard right and you begin the ascent, a sometimes gradual, sometimes a little steep, climb for 1.4 miles up to Bayview Trail.
 
At this point, you’ll take another right and travel 0.7 mile back to the Sky Trailhead, completing a memorable loop in less than a few hours. 

It’s one of many hikes without crowds that Point Reyes has for you, even on weekends that may be packed with people only a few miles away.