Not that the place and the ride haven't tried. Behind us the desiccated hills of Bolinas Ridge bunch up like tossed blankets. In front, Tomales Bay separates the peninsula from the mainland.
Breakers smash against the already dented and broken coastline.
Point Reyes National Seashore, an accident of tectonic plates. A trip to the overlook at Point Reyes is really a border crossing, from the North American Plate to the Northern Pacific Plate a risky maneuver, geologically speaking, since this vagrant peninsula yearns for the Arctic, inching north each year while its antagonist plate marches west. The result is the San Andreas Fault and, more to the point, piles of huge, jagged rocks along the coast that would seem at home topping a mountain range. Resting atop this violent stretch of earth, we're feeling surprisingly cocky and invincible. We have, after all, already survived one of the world's greatest long stretches of asphalt.