Tower of trample jessica9/13/2023 What caused the degradation is no mystery. A rainbow dances above the hiking trail to Tomales Point. The blanket of emerald vegetation is a blanket of weeds. The landscape may look lush at 50 mph but there is little prairie junegrass and wild rye left here. The road to the Point Reyes Lighthouse is rough but the hills outside my car window, made green by winter rains, create smooth waves across the horizon. Despite being a national park site, Point Reyes is a key battleground for the future of conservation in California and at its center, the tule elk roam. ![]() The two smaller herds live in freedom at Limantour and Drakes beaches, but no one knows for exactly how long. Though three herds of tule elk live in the park today, only the captive one on this narrow rocky peninsula at Tomales Point resembles what once was. ![]() ![]() Two hundred years ago, the prairies and meadows of Point Reyes National Seashore were teeming with these shaggy ungulates, a subspecies of elk found only in California. As I hike five miles toward the peninsula’s abrupt end at Tomales Point, tule elk lounge on the bluffs, their antlers glinting in the dappled light. The forecast promises rain but the skies that darken above Northern California’s Tomales Bay bring only rainbows, dancing elegantly over the trail.
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