Muir Wood National Monument
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2010
1
14
26
Trip End
Dec 18, 2010
San Francisco, California
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
We headed back north across the Golden Gate bridge, then off towards the shore, down a series of very steep switchbacks, in order to find the very deep valley that protects this very special old growth forest known as the Muir Woods. It's not large - about 560 acres - and in the bottom of this valley, defined by a small stream that takes up most of the width between steep slopes, is a network of paths that are relatively easy to walk. We walked the full length of the valley trails and then chose to cross bridge four to do the hillside trail on the way back to the entrance. A great walk, cold in the valley and more moderate as you climbed the hill. Old growth trees, not as spectacular as the ones we saw earlier, but still pretty special. The proximity of this park to a large urban center makes it very popular. After leaving the park we checked out Muir beach, a wild, relatively undeveloped but popular picnic spot even at this time of year - in this cold weather!
Back in the city we drove through Golden Gate Park, a park that claims to be larger than Central Park in New York. We decided that it would be easy to get lost without a map - and that it would be a great place to cycle in warmer weather. There are polo fields, a herd of buffalo, picnic areas, art galleries, performance centers, both outdoors and indoors, a conservatory and miles and miles of paths and roads. Horses, bicycles, people walking or sitting everywhere. We made one stop at the Conservatory of Flowers but were too late to do the tour inside. Everything closed early today in preparation for Thanksgiving tomorrow.
