Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Point Reyes National Seashore is located in Marin County, California. Although not designated as a national park, it is maintained by the National Park Service as a nationally important preserve. McClure's Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore Looking south on an overcast winter's afternoon The preserve consists of 70,000 acres of the Point Reyes peninsula, 30 miles north of San Francisco. The peninsula is a well defined area, separated from the rest of Marin County by a rift zone of the San Andreas Fault; about half of this is sunk below sea level and forms Tomales Bay. The small town of Point Reyes Station forms the gateway to the peninsula and provides most services to it, though some services are also available at Inverness on the west shore of Tomales Bay. The preserve includes wild coastal beaches and headlands, estuaries, and uplands. Although parts of the peninsula are commercially farmed, and parts are under the jurisdiction of other conservation authorities, the National Park Service provides signage and seeks to manage visitor impact on the entire peninsula. The northernmost part of the peninsula is maintained as a reserve for tule elk, which are readily seen there. The preserve is also very rich in raptors and shorebirds. The Point Reyes National Seashore attracts 2.5 million visitors annually. External Links http://www.nps.gov/pore National Parks Service official website about Point Reyes http://www.pointreyes.net An individual enthusiast's well-presented site about Point Reyes http://www.pointreyes.org West Marin Chamber of Commerce site about Point Reyes http://www.ptreyes.org Point Reyes National Seashore Association, a nonprofit organization working in coordination with the National Park Service. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.