Arrival at the Muir Woods trailhead by the visitor center — the plan for the walking loop through the old-growth coast redwoods, and how the tour follows you on foot.
Here we are — out of the car, on our feet, at the edge of one of the most remarkable forests left on the face of the Earth. Welcome to the woods themselves.
Here's where you're standing. This is a narrow, fog-fed canyon in Marin County, just twelve miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge — and rising all around you are coast redwoods, the tallest living things on the planet. The tallest one in this grove reaches about two hundred and fifty-eight feet into the fog. Some of these trees were already old when the Magna Carta was signed; a few have been standing here for more than a thousand years. This is old growth — a forest that has never been cut — and there is almost none of it left in the world.
The plan is a loop, and it's an easy one. We'll follow the main paved trail from the entrance, heading up the canyon along Redwood Creek — past Bridge Two and Bridge Three, through the great trees of Cathedral Grove, all the way up to Bridge Four. There we'll cross the creek and come back down the Hillside Trail on the far slope, looking down through the crowns of the redwoods, and close the loop right back here. Figure about an hour and a half at an easy pace. The main trail is flat and paved; the Hillside stretch has a gentle climb and a few steps.
The tour follows you on your phone the whole way — stop whenever you like, and it waits right there; just tap play to pick up where you left off. Now — head on through the entrance, keep the creek on your left, and follow the paved path in under the big trees. Let's walk into the redwoods.
Photo: Sarbjit Bahga · CC BY-SA 4.0
