I am not a happy camper. I don’t like tents or cook stoves or backpacks. I hate sleeping on rocky ledges and sliding off a Thermarest in the middle of the night because when I camp, I inevitably end up sleeping on an incline. I’m very attached to walls and ceilings and dew-dampened tarps just aren’t the same.

While I hate being without hot water showers and flushing toilets, my parents relish this primitive way of life. They are hikers, birders and REI lifetime members. My mother wants to look at every wildflower she comes across; my father has never seen a mountain he didn’t want to climb and I can’t stay anywhere that does not have easy access to a good breakfast restaurant and an interesting, independent bookstore. This has made for difficult family vacations.

I have been bribed up mountains with plastic Mount Lassen Indian dolls, sent on wilderness walks for children where the leader stopped at every pile of animal excrement and shouted "Something special!" and have survived scary drives with my father at the wheel, his eyes on some new bird rather than the windy road ahead. But my family and I have found a compromise in Point Reyes National Seashore.

Point Reyes is a gorgeous triangular stretch of green, rolling hills about an hour out of The City. Bordered on one side by Tomales Bay and on the other by the wild Pacific, the West Marin peninsula offers a little something for everyone—a town and a wilderness area; hot showers and tide pools; elks and omelets.

Point Reyes is known for its beautiful beaches, its incredible array of wildlife, and its bounty of hiking and camping areas. But we stay at the youth hostel, where we can drive practically up to the door, instead of backpacking endlessly. The youth hostel is situated about 15 minutes out of the small town of Point Reyes Station along a mildly windy road though redwoods and hills dotted with Tule elk and Fallow deer.

While I prefer the youth hostel over camping. It is not for everyone. It seems to appeal to hippies, I rank hippies below camping on my list of dislikes but it is not camping and for that reason alone, I love it.

For $12 per person per night (plus a morning chore) you get a mattress (on a bunk in the women’s dorm), access to the kitchen, a two-minute hot showers and a cozy living room with a woodstove, a couple couches, some excellent books and games.

The hostel has a family room for those with children under 5, equipped with one double bed and three singles. All others get a bunk in the dorm, although private, single rooms are in the works. Despite my prejudices against the Great Unwashed (hippies), most of the people I’ve met at the youth hostel are good company, interesting (and clean) travelers trading hiking stories and outdoor advice.

This is my ideal night at the youth hostel: cooking dinner while surreptitiously drinking red wine out of coffee cups (there is not supposed to be any alcohol) and settling in with a book afterwards. There is not a TV in sight and out the giant bay window of the living room the only sight is trees, hills and maybe a rabbit or fox. The last time I was there, the only background noise was a group of travelers and a member of the hostel’s staff played Scrabble while my dad and I looked at a book of pictures of earth from space.

I suppose if hiking didn’t feel like extreme punishment, the hostel would be a great place to head out on a wilderness trek. Two prime trailheads branch out from the youth hostel toward the ocean: the first trail to Coast Camp, is an easy half-mile day hike or family backpacking venture. Camping takes place on a flat, grassy valley just a short walk from the beach (and there are even restrooms and a faucet). The second trail to Sky camp is much more rigorous, logging in seven or so miles before reaching camp. I have never tried the Sky Camp trail and hopefully never will.

My family and I have walked to Coast camp as a day hike rather than our destination. We head up the beach for another half mile and circle back on the muddy hollow trail which brings you right back at the youth hostel road. Muddy hollow, despite its name, is not a mucky mess, but rather a deep trail that cuts through hip high grasses and trees. My dad and I have even run there.

On your last Point Reyes trip, we skipped the beach walk and headed right into town. Point Reyes Station is only a few roads wide so downtown is fairly obvious. There is one market (the Palace Market which carried great bread from Il Forniao), one taqueria, a general store, a bookstore, a really notable restaurant and a few very Marin folk-art type places.

The best store downtown is The Brown Study Bookshop which sells used editions of books you thought you’d never see again. Their selection of first editions is amazing, possibly the best I have ever encountered (and that’s after seven years in the book business) and the used books are both rare and cheap. I caught a $2.50 copy of Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook—a book priced $14 for the new editions—and a Graham Greene novel I’d never heard of.

The Point Reyes Stationhouse Café is one of only a few restaurants downtown but it serves great food—some staples (fluffy buttermilk pancakes, hearty oatmeal) and some gourmet fare (my mother had dish of eggs, creamed spinach and a mashed potato pancake). The coffee is plentiful, the napkins are cloth, the prices are reasonable ($5-7) and the scones from the Bovine Bakery down the street are enormous, blueberry pierced wedges that I recommend taking to the beach.

We took a blueberry scone with us to Abbott’s Lagoon (take Sir Francis Drake Boulevard past the little town of Inverness, through the dairy farms and veer right onto Pierce Point Road. Abbott’s is on the left), an easy half mile walk along a rather clear and pretty lagoon to the ocean. The word "lagoon" brings to mind muddy shores and algae covered brown water, but Abbott’s is a well of clear, clean water framed by lily pads. The dirt path along the lagoon ends at a wooden bridge and the rest of the walk is cross-country along the dunes out to the water.

Point Reyes is a birders paradise—I read that 45% of North American bird species have been sighted in Point Reyes. In the two days we spent there, we spotted Northern Harriers (marsh hawk), Red Tailed hawks, Kestrels, red-winged blackbirds, egrets and pelicans--and Abbott’s is a well known birding spot. But I was too enthralled with the pounding surf, visible from the trail.

The peaceful little lagoon empties out into a far more violent world. The massive waves forcing their way on shore is a spectacular show and the beach is scattered with driftwood to take it all in. The wide arc of beach itself makes for a nice walk if the walk in was too easy but swimming is not allowed at Abbott’s.

Swimming is prohibited at many of Point Reyes beaches as the forceful waves, strong rip currents and typical chilly Northern California water temperatures make for dangerous swimming conditions. And after noticing at the Visitors Center how Point Reyes is located at the northern tip of the red triangle (the area of the Pacific noted for Great White sharks), swimming became even less appealing for me.

From Abbott’s, we continued up Pierce Point Road to the Pierce Ranch, the trailhead for Tomales Bay Point. This is a great walk and one of the most beautiful walks Point Reyes has to offer. The trail along the cliffs offers a real California coast view—all yellow sun, green hills and blue water--with the waves crashing along the base of the cliffs. But, the towering lush cliffs reminded me of Kauai.

The path wanders along the grassy hilltops offering incredible views of Tomales Bay, Bodega Bay and the Pacific. I imagine this is a great place to spot migrating Gray whales in February or March. We walked 45 minutes out and lounged on the side of the trail just taking in the view while people of all ages wandered past.

First time visitors to Point Reyes shouldn’t pass up the Bear Valley Visitor Center (the turn-off is between the youth hostel and the town) which offers good background on the animals, birds and plants that make up the national seashore area. There are a more trailheads from the visitors’ center as well as picnic tables for quick lunching before heading out.

The Miwok Village is an easy and fast walk from the visitors’ center. My sister and I loved the village as kids because we could go in the sweat lodges and teepees. I still think it is neat now. More interesting for me, though, is the Earthquake trail, which slides along the top of the San Andreas faultline. The power of the fault is obvious on this trail as the fence which runs along the right suddenly jumps to the left of the trail and continues.

Also not to be missed is the Point Reyes Lighthouse—the views are wonderful, the tour is actually interesting and the stairs that lead down to it offer a good workout on your way back up to the parking lot.

With all the hiking and camping I did as a child, I never thought I liked Point Reyes or even liked the outdoors. This last family trip though was sweeter somehow, perhaps because I am an adult now and my sister has left home for college so we forced less to do what our parents desire for us to do. Or perhaps because my father has ceased tricking us into hikes too vigorous and demanding for us Or maybe it had nothing to do with us and everything to do with Point Reyes.

Point Reyes National Seashore

Visitor Information (415) 663-1092

Point Reyes Youth Hostel

Off Limantour Road

(415) 663-8811

Station House Café

(415) 663-1515

The Brown Study Bookshop

(415) 663-1633

Palace Market

(415) 663-1016

Bovine Bakery

(415) 663-9420

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