MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: Day Hiking Mount Tamalpais State Park, the Municipal Watershed District & Splendid Open Space Preserves


Flying over the north flanks of the much-beloved 2571 ft. peak, Barbara remarked how she couldn’t believe her eyes at the scene her husband was leaning out the window to capture on film:

"This is incredible. It’s all unbroken forest down there. I’m seeing more continuous forest right here in the Bay Area than in all my flights over the national parks of Costa Rica." (Galen and Barbara perished in a tragic plane crash that never should have happened near Bishop, California on August 14, 2002.)

Fortunately, he completed before his untimely death what has certainly become a vade mecum of the natural Bay Area world within a forty-mile radius. The result is more than a handsome coffee table book, filled with familiar yet utterly exotic photographs and vivid, resonating prose.

Bay Area Wild is an enduring legacy, the story of his beloved Bay Area where, as a boy growing up in the Berkeley Hills, he realized early on how lucky he was to live in such beautiful natural surroundings, on a par with anywhere in the world, and probably unequalled, in total land area preserved or set aside for non-development, for a large urban area.

It was a wild Bay Area that inspired Rowell, after years of documenting extraordinary places around the world, to pay similar homage to his own backyard.

And it is Bay Area Wild that inspires my own renewed explorations of the natural world that surrounds us, exists apart from us, and at the same time, is intertwined with us, in our sometimes glorious, always maddening megalopolis setting of seven million people, spanning wine country to Silicon Valley (nine counties).

Difficult to imagine: more unbroken forest than in Costa Rica! Just when you think you’ve seen it all, been there, done that, a thousand times – for how could anything remain of interest or intrigue after your 300th trip to Tilden or Redwood Regional Park? – Rowell’s book forces you to think again, "to return to the place and know it for the first time."

Compels you to delve to a deeper layer of perception and appreciation, to more fully experience God in a blade of grass and infinity in the palm of your hand, all right within a stone‘s throw from wherever you are in the Bay Area.

Who needs Mendocino, Santa Cruz, Big Sur, the High Sierra, or Costa Rica for that matter, when you’ve got Marin County in your sights, just across the perpetually in retrofit construction Richmond-San Rafael bridge, thirty minutes from Berkeley. (Or, just across the Golden Gate Bridge, fifteen minutes from San Francisco.)

Marin County: charming and quaint on the one hand – populated by sweet little communities like Sausalito, Fairfax, San Anselmo, Woodacre, Tiburon, Inverness, Pt. Reyes Station, Stinson Beach, Bolinas.

On the other, it is a demographic powerhouse (but not so well known are its pockets of impoverishment and neglect), ranking as the fourteenth wealthiest U.S. county in median household income, at just over $71 Gs, and the land 'o plenty comes in at numero uno among all 3,086 U.S. counties for per capita income, at just under $45,000.

Marin County is also infinitely interesting and famous – notorious? – for being home to San Quentin Prison, Skywalker Ranch, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, and a host of famous musicians, actors, writers, artists, political activists, rabble-rousers, hangers-on, ne’er do wells, senescent hippies, and, believe it or not, a few “normal” denizens as well.

Finally, not to perpetuate the caricature, Marin County is certifiably replete with legions of Extremely Affluent / New Age / Ultra-Liberal / Hot Tubbin‘ / Nude Sun Bathin’ / Nepenthe Seekin’ / Rapidly Aging Baby Boomers . . . (Note to self: how much of this animal is me?)

But everyone knows what gives Marin County its real cachet, what drives millions of tourists there every year – an abundance of open spaces and sacred places.

Radiating out from the crown jewel of Mount Tamalpais, from her purple mountain‘s majesty to the blue-green shining sea below, Marin County offers up a fabulous menu of scenic and natural wonders.

It’s a big, big place, and not one city over 60,000!
Finally off that nerve-racking bridge, you can breathe a sigh of relief and crank up your adrenaline meter a couple of notches!

The options for a day’s outing of fun and adventure are limitless. It’s possible to not plan anything in advance, just get over there, be totally spontaneous, and you’ll find something to do outside, somewhere, anywhere, that’s guaranteed to blow your mind, or calm your soul, depending on your mood du jour.

Hikers own the place; you can go anywhere you damn well please, nearly. Simply pack a lunch, and then disappear the entire day and not see another soul. (Don’t forget map and binoculars!)








Marin County is also famous for being the birthplace of mountain biking. I’ve done my share of rugged, kick-butt rides on most of Marin’s famous single-track and fire road courses – Tamarancho, China Camp, Pine Mountain, Repack, Bolinas Ridge, Tennessee Valley.



First and foremost, I am, have been, and always will be, a foot-to-the-Earth person. Thus, the relatively mild-mannered hikes described herein. But, oh, what greater activity or pastime can there be than hiking? Paul Dudley White (physician 1886-1973) noted, "A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world."

Yes, woe unto those who have not discovered the joys, or who have forsook the joys, of hiking! Nothing cheers the heart more than walking in the woods, nothing inflates stifled joy so much as strolling through sweet-smelling meadows bursting with wildflowers, or scrambling up scree-strewn ridges to attain rarefied heights for heart-racing views.




Carson Falls Loop: Liberty Trail to Oat Hill Road To Old Vee Road to Little Carson Creek Trail and Back




Catch Liberty Trail off Bolinas Fairfax Road, climb up to the ridge through an enchanted forested gully, and loop around and down on the big fire road providing splendid views all the way east to Mount Diablo.
After a slight descent, Little Carson Creek trail takes you up and up along a series of small cascades and pools to the base of Carson Falls – a truly impressive sight and eminently rewarding destination to plop down, eat a sandwich, and enjoy its multifarious splendors.
Steep Ravine Loop: Matt Davis Trail to Steep Ravine Trail and Back to Pantoll Ranger Station




You could linger, explore, meditate at this place all day long, gaping at tremendous sweeping views reminiscent of the Amalfi Coast or Cinque Terre.But, picking yourself up, you continue hiking down Matt Davis Trail to the Bohemian town of Stinson Beach, and then on back up Steep Ravine trail.
When the water’s flowing, expect magic and miracles around every bend. Sunlit dappled pools, raging cascades, swirling water through carved chutes, towering Redwoods. Even in deep summer, it is a cool hike, a place you can expect to find solitude, peace, and a pool here and there to soak your feet in and while away a lazy day.
Kent Trail to Alpine Lake to Cataract Falls and Back











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