Even if you never researched coastline around San Francisco Bay Area, you probably saw the photos of the tall and beautiful lighthouse surrounded by dense fog or spring wildflowers, or during the night sending its light somewhere into the ocean.
If you are driving Highway 1 from San Francisco to Santa Cruz Pigeon Point is an absolute must stop.


Pigeon Point Light Station built in 1871. It is the tallest lighthouse (tied with Point Arena Light) on the West Coast of the US. It is still an active Coast Guard aid to navigation. The 115-foot tower was designed in typical New England style.
I have dozens of photos of the lighthouse in every season and weather. And it never disappoints. The rocky headland is beautiful by itself.
The building is easily accessible from the highway, and by the way visible from a distance, so it’s hard not to find it.

This headland and the lighthouse took its name from the ship Carrier Pigeon that wrecked here in 1853.
The tower is closed and as long as I remember it’s on the reconstruction. They seek donations because the cost of the repairs is huge.

There are few scenic viewpoints of the lighthouse. But Pigeon Point bluffs are the most known. The pullout from the road gives a beginning of the short trail to the coast.
If walk towards the buildings the biggest rock will show you the window made by waves.

And view aerial photos of the lighthouse and the headlands.