Outdoor Areas

This large national preserve has many opportunities for hiking, sightseeing, and visiting unusual local points of interest, including Golden Gate Park.

This is a delightful once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Bring your camera, snacks, water and good walking shoes – and lots of warm clothes. Dress in layers – because it can be cold, foggy and windy – even in August!

An old-growth coastal redwood forest, Muir Woods was the filming location of the lush Endor scenes in Return of the Jedi. From Muir Woods, there are hiking trails up to Mount Tamalpais and down to Stinson Beach.

6,300 acres of redwood groves, oak woodlands, grassland slopes, chaparral and rocky ridges. Offering spectacular views of the nearby Pacific and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area, from its ridges, slopes and the 2,571-foot high, East Peak.

With 147 miles of trails in 70,000 acres of pristine seashore, Point Reyes is home to 400 elk. From Chimney Rock and the Lighthouse, you can see the gray whale "highway", as well as harbor seals, sea lions and elephant seals.

Until recently, most of these 23,000 acres of wild and pristine lands were off-limits to all but authorized personnel. Though you can't actually enter the wildlands here, you see them and come close to them from the roads and trails that pass along the east edge of the area.

18,000 acres of old-growth redwoods about 25 miles north of Santa Cruz. Excellent hiking trails. There is a small charge for parking.

The Bay Trail is a planned recreational corridor that, when complete, will encircle San Francisco and San Pablo Bays with a continuous 500-mile network of bicycling and hiking trails. To date, approximately 290 miles of the alignment—over half the Bay Trail’s ultimate length—have been completed.

The forest here is lush and mossy, crisscrossed by 32 miles of hiking and horseback riding trails.

Hike along the streams in the cool, tree lined valleys. Climb up on the high ridges for a spectacular view of the coastline on the western slope and gaze into three million acres of wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest on the eastern slope.