Saturday, September 1, 2012

Point Cabrillo Light Station


View Point Cabrillo Light Station - September 2012 in a larger map

What
  • Point Cabrillo Lighthouse
  • View of Pacific Ocean
  • Hiking trails along the coast (North Trail and South Trail)
  • Seals
  • Deer
  • Frolic Cove (place of the 1850 Frolic shipwreck)

More Info
  • Free parking
  • Free admission
  • Museum is opened from 10am to 4pm
  • 0.5 mile walk from parking lot to the lighthouse
  • Free maps inside the lighthouse museum
  • Restrooms near the lighthouse
  • Gift shop inside the lighthouse
  • Vacation rentals close to the lighthouse
  • Lighthouse grounds open all the time

While driving on CA1, we tried hard to peek at the Point Cabrillo lighthouse that we had only seen in pictures, but in vain. A detour from CA1 took us to the Point Cabrillo Light Station. There are several parking lots next to each other, so I cannot imagine a time when somebody would need to hunt high and low for a parking space.

We took the paved Lighthouse Road and walked for about half a mile to reach the Point Cabrillo lighthouse. Only authorized vehicles and vehicles displaying disabled placards are permitted to drive all the way till the lighthouse. All along the way on the Lighthouse Road, we saw several small posters that offered fun facts about whales.

Point Cabrillo Lighthouse

Soon, we saw the beautiful lighthouse against the unusually harmonious Pacific waters. We went inside the lighthouse to take a look at the souvenirs and also grabbed a free map from the gift shop. In addition, the gift shop has several placards that offer a ton of information about the history of the lighthouse. The lighthouse is actually over a century old! The construction of the lighthouse started within a year or two after the 1906 devastating earthquake in San Francisco.

Hula dance performance

Within the lighthouse grounds, there were a few scenic viewpoints where one can capture a picturesque shot of the lighthouse against the ocean. It is also an excellent viewpoint to see the migrating whales.

View of Frolic Cove to the far right end

There are also a couple of trails that commence here; North Trail takes one to the north all the way till the Frolic Cove, which is the exact spot of the 1850 Frolic shipwreck. While majestically travelling to San Francisco from China, the Frolic clipper hit the rocky Pacific shore and wrecked here.

Seals basking on the rocks off the shore

Exhausted us, we took the shorter South Trail. It was nice simply walking along the coastal trail and looking behind every now and then to see the lighthouse. We even noticed several harbor seals basking on the rocks just off the shore, hence climbed down on the rocks nearby to get a closer view of the seals. We even noticed deer hopping off into the fields.
View of the lighthouse from South Trail

Tips
  • Excellent vantage point to see whales
  • Excellent viewpoint for sunset
  • Although the lighthouse itself is opened only from 10am to 4pm, the lighthouse grounds are always accessible

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