This story was originally published in the Point Reyes Light, a weekly newspaper serving western Marin County since 1948.
The 150 miles of trails at the Point Reyes National Seashore nearly all began as ranch roads, logging roads, utility routes or military access roads—practical paths cut for work and later repurposed for hikers after the park was formed from a patchwork of private land.
Now, more than six decades later, that inherited network is being reconsidered from the ground up.
A new initiative called Point Reyes Trails Forever, the most ambitious trail-planning effort the park has ever undertaken, aims to create a network that can better withstand erosion, protect sensitive habitats, tell a fuller story of the land and guide millions of visitors through the seashore on routes designed for recreation—not simply adapted from the peninsula’s working past.
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“It’s a holistic reimagining of the trail system in the park,” said Donna Faure, executive director of the Point Reyes National Seashore Association. “We’re trying to create a system that is sustainable for the park service to manage and also connects the public with the wonder, beauty and culture of this land.”
The effort, a collaboration between PRNSA, the National Park Service and the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, began more than two years ago, before the January 2025 settlement that ended most ranching in the park. But the legal agreement added a new layer to the planning: Nearly 17,000 acres of former ranchland are now entering a new phase of management, opening areas that visitors may one day explore.
As part of the settlement, the park released an updated general management plan that promised to provide more of what it calls “visitor enjoyment opportunities.” The plan envisioned a reworking of the existing trail network. “Trail opportunities may include loop routes, improve connectivity with adjacent public lands, and facilitate north-south connectivity across the landscape,” it states.
The first step, Ms. Faure said, was to understand the condition of existing trails. PRNSA led a planning process that included a trail-condition assessment and the creation of a GIS trail database—something the park did not previously have. The nonprofit hired the Red Bridge Group, a consulting firm with experience in large-scale park planning, including the Trails Forever effort that has been underway at Golden Gate National Recreation Area since the 1980s, to help evaluate the system. It identified what Ms. Faure called “study zones,” areas where trails are in poor condition, connections are missing or new routes might make sense.
PRNSA paid for the $250,000 planning process itself, an outlay Ms. Faure said was necessary because the park service generally does not have dedicated funding for this kind of long-range planning work.
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No specific projects have been chosen. There is no estimated number of miles to be built or reworked, no proposed budget and no construction timeline. A strategic framework due for release to the public this summer will identify possible opportunities and give residents and visitors a clearer sense of what kinds of projects could eventually move forward.
For now, the public is being asked to weigh in through a survey, available in English and Spanish, that will remain open for the next six months. PRNSA is also planning outreach to cyclists, equestrians, youth programs and other user groups whose constituents may not find the survey on their own. QR codes are being placed at trailheads, and volunteers will be in the park this summer talking with visitors.
About 2.3 million people visit the seashore every year, generating an estimated $149 million in local economic activity, according to park officials.
“We want to know what those people are most excited about,” Ms. Faure said. “Some people want new trails or new trails with opportunities to cycle. For other people, it’s about having the current trails maintained better. And for others, it is all about having better parking at the trailheads and more picnic tables.”
Better interpretive signage—telling the stories of the land and the people who have inhabited it, from the Coast Miwok to Spanish missionaries, Mexican-era rancheros, immigrant dairy families and ranch workers, lighthouse keepers and military personnel—is also a central part of the plan, she said.
The former ranchlands are expected to be part of that conversation. “They hold incredible ecological and cultural stories that we want to tell,” Ms. Faure said, and because that land sits outside designated wilderness, they may offer more flexibility for future trail planning.
But the future of the ranch cores—the barns, homes, outbuildings and other infrastructure—remains separate from the Trails Forever process. Park officials have not said which buildings might be reused, restored or removed, or whether any of the former ranch complexes could eventually serve as staff housing, trailheads, picnic areas or education sites.
This summer, the park is beginning a separate assessment of the ranch cores. A few interns are expected to inventory the buildings and infrastructure and help identify priorities for possible adaptive reuse. Decisions about what the park will keep, repair or remove will follow from that work.
Physical fencing, another vestige of the park’s recent ranching past, remains another unresolved question.
The Nature Conservancy, which is managing the former ranchlands under a cooperative agreement with the park service, has said that more than 50 miles of internal fencing is expected to come down as targeted grazing adopts virtual fencing.
The technology allows ranchers to move cattle more frequently and precisely without relying on fixed barriers. Collars relay the animals’ locations to cell phones, and ranchers set invisible boundaries using GPS coordinates. As a cow approaches a boundary, the collar beeps. If she crosses it, it delivers a mild electric shock.
Miles of barbed-wire roadside fencing are expected to remain, though gates or other access points could be added. The park did not respond to requests for comment on the rationale for leaving the roadside fences. Ms. Faure cited public safety.
Opinions? Have your say at Point Reyes Trails Forever. This story was originally published in the Point Reyes Light, a weekly newspaper serving western Marin County since 1948.
