Despite being next door to Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Point Reyes is a completely different kind of park. Rather than multi-unit, broken apart, and urbanized, Point Reyes is a large, singular chunk of land, still wild and rural in character, with miles of pristine beach.

I first visited Point Reyes on a road trip from Alaska to San Diego, but it was a quick trip. I appreciated the time to dig in and learn about the many amazing things about this national seashore—and of course squeeze in a backpacking trip at the end.

• I had so many stories I wanted to tell, I ended up making four maps: the main park map; a bird's-eye view showing and explaining faults and geology; a map of adjacent protected ocean habitats, including bathymetry; and an inset of the primary visitor center area.
• There was a lot of data to fit into this map: wilderness and non-wilderness designations of both land and water inside the park; multiple classifications of trails in a complex system; adjacent national recreation area and state park lands. The balancing act was tough, but a great learning experience.

Original files available at NPS.gov