A gorgeous hike along trails meandering along creeks and through redwoods, forests and open spaces. Awesome ocean views as well.

Location: Mount Tamalpais State Park

» RedwoodHikes Map for this route: Thanks to Dave Baselt for sharing a free map for this route with us.

» Official Trail Map: Decent quality map. However, mileage information is missing. Not enough details of trail intersections, some of which have no signposs.

» RedwoodHikes Trail Map: Annotated trail map of Muir Woods National Monument and most of Mt Tamalpais State Park. An excellent quality trail map ($6.95 in Jan 2012) that is recommended for avid hikers. Mt Tamalpais has plenty of trails and trail intersections. This map shows them very clearly. Much better than official state parks map or GGNRA map.

Trailhead: Pantoll Ranger Station

Route in brief: This hike is described in great detail at RedwoodHikes.com. In brief, from Pantoll Ranger Station, follow Matt Davis Trail (1.5 miles) → Coastal Trail (1.8 miles) → Willow Camp Fire Road (1.6 miles) → various paved roads through Stinson Beach area (0.7 miles) → Dipsea Trail (1.1 miles) → Steep Ravine Trail (1.8 miles).

Notes: Some sections of Willow Camp are quite steep, so descend with care. Coastal Trail and Dipsea were mostly in the sun, so you may wish to avoid summers for this hike. Matt Davis was partly shaded. Steep Ravine was exceptionally beautiful — lush green, amid tall trees and next to Webb Creek, making it the best trail in Mount Tamalpais. At one point, there was a 10-ft ladder to climb.

Location: Intersection of Panoramic Highway and Pan Toll Road, Mill Valley, CA 94941 . No street address. Parking area is visible in Google Maps if you zoom in sufficiently.

Directions:

The official street address is: 3801 Panoramic Highway, Mill Valley, CA -- this address maps to some strange location on Google Maps. Bing Maps shows it correctly.

From south bay: Go along Highway 1 and cross Golden Gate Bridge. Take exit 445B to merge onto CA-1 North towards Mill Valley / Stinson Beach. After 3.6 miles, turn right onto Panoramic Highway. Drive for 5.3 miles, following signs for Mt Tamalpais, to reach the park headquarters.

Google Maps:

Parking Fees: $8 per vehicle (last visited: Jan 2012)

Capacity: Dozens of cars may be parked at Pantoll Ranger Station, the Park Headquarters for Mt Tamalpais.

Latitude: 37.904556     Longitude: -122.604010

In July 2010, these were seen in trails exposed to sun: Coastal Trail — Willow Camp Fire Rd — Redwood Trail — Sun Trail — Dipsea Trail.