Park Wavelengths - Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Extreme high and low tides follow the new moon on Saturday June 4—six-foot or higher in the evening hours, with minus tides just before sunrise. Beach walking is best early in the day!
Red elderberry shrubs are covered with sprays of crimson red berries (non-edible) with blackberry bushes in full bloom of rosy white blossoms. Great blue herons are busy hunting gophers in the picnic area.
Grasses are browning in the warm temperatures. Look for the rattlesnake grass whose seeds fit together like the buttons on the end of a rattlesnake's tail.
The goats are back at D Ranch! Goats are snacking on exotic plants in the pastures above Drakes Beach.
The Bear Valley and the Lighthouse visitor centers are open this holiday weekend. All campgrounds are full for the weekend, including boat in sites on Tomales Bay. Carpooling and traveling early in the day is highly recommended due to congestion in the parking lots.
Memorial Day will be observed in the park at the U.S. Life-Saving Service cemetery, off Sir Francis Drake Highway with a short ceremony beginning at 1:30 pm. The historic boathouse at Chimney Rock will be open to the public from 3 to 5 pm, with the recently refurbished motor lifeboat on display.
The weekend and federal holiday beach closure of the section of the Great Beach from the North Beach parking lot to the mouth of Abbotts Lagoon to protect western snowy plovers begins on May 28 and lasts through September 5, 2016.