Muir Woods & Mill Valley : Mount Tamalpais State Park California - in Photos

Last year mid february, I along with some friends did a short hike to Muir woods. it was on one of the long holiday weekend. The original plan was to climb Mt. Tamalpais through redwood forest. But since parking got real crazy overflowed and we also lost sometime midway, we did few small trails in the state park and went to muir beach instead.




Mount Tamalpais is a 2571ft tall peak just north of San Francisco on the coastline itself. On a clear day, one can see the Farallon Islands 25 miles out to sea and the Marin County hills. San Francisco and the bay and nearby hills and cities of the East Bay, and also Mount Diablo can also be sighted from the peak. State park features more than 50 miles of Hiking and Bicycle trails which are connected to a larger, 200-mile-long trail system. most of the trails including the bicycle trails, and road are quite curvy. The park is open throughout the year and features some camping areas as well.

The Most popular perhaps in the world, is Muir Woods National Monument that features giant redwood forest. The Main trail is a boardwalk which I could see or rather walked only little of. The tallest redwoods trees in the park are only about 250 feet high, compared to 370 feet for the tallest redwoods in the world. But close proximity to the city and easy access makes it more popular than other areas of the north.

When we had to park really far and inside from the entrance at the national monument, we decided to climb a nearby Redwood Creek trail. These trails are open hence you don't have to pay the park fee to hike. there are many connected short trails and the view of the valley from the trail is stunning anytime of the day.

With a little more time in hand, we decided to drive a little west to Muir Beach. A quiet cove, beach and lagoon, Muir Beach is only few miles on the coastline and is very favored among the locals. Clearly, We had many people for company and specially lots of kids. The beach is clean and also has few view points to climb and enjoy the sunsets from.

While looking at my archive during a -cleaning drive- I realized I have hundreds of trip, few long and few short ones like above, that I have never written about or posted photos anywhere. This year I am planning to revisit some of those in writing and I hope you enjoy them.

Fact File :

Address: Mill Valley, CA
Area: 559 acres (226 ha)
Hours: Thursday 8:00 am – 6:00 pm Depending on season.
Phone: (415) 388-2595
Management: U.S. National Park Service

Images :
I shot these images with iPhone 4S, and Toy Camera app. the top most one is obviously my favorite. those flowers were soft as cotton and looked radiant in the sun. Few images have been cropped in Instagram.