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Friday Slide Show: Point Bonita
4 July 2025
The last time we visited the Point Bonita lighthouse in the Marin headlands just west of the Golden Gate bridge, was in 1999 with some visitors. It's certainly not your typical tourist attraction. It's terrifying.
Of course from Lincoln Park across the Golden Gate, it looks like it's from a fairy tale. Its white bridge and white lighthouse against the dark hills and the blue ocean look ethereally inviting.
But up close, it's the scariest thing you can do around here from the moment you enter the tunnel carved in the rock to the second you step on the wobbly wooden bridge (which can only hold five people at a time) to the minute you look over the edge at the crashing waves below.
Then, of course, there's the thought you have to go back over that bridge and through the tunnel to get back to your car.
The Point Bonita Lighthouse Web site warns you:
Yes, this lighthouse at the southwest tip of the Marin Headlands is still active and maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard. Getting there is a challenge, parking is limited and the 0.5-mile walk is steep and precarious. This spot, at the "world's end," is ruggedly beautiful. Nearby, old army buildings are used for environmental education programs.
Under "History," the site explains:
The lighthouse was originally placed on a hill above the current location and built in 1855. Point Bonita was the third lighthouse to be built on the West Coast after San Francisco's infamous fog sent many ships crashing against the headlands' rocky shoreline. It was moved to its current location in 1877.
We shot these with our 1.2-Mp Nikon 900 swivel digicam. No doubt we could do better today with our more sophisticated gear.
But we're not going back.
