My best experience in Muir Woods was a 5:45am hike with a Volunteer Ranger. A group of 15 people walking through the forest for 2 hours as the forest is waking up and nocturnal animals hideaway.
2nd best experience was a Summer Solstice 7pm hike through the woods as it was going to rest and nocturnal animals were waking up. Again, small group and a great Ranger.
Since then, I never go when everyone else is there.
4
Drive up to Hendy Woods in Philo for a quiet experience with exponentially more big trees than Muir. For quiet and hiking in the Bay Area, there are a ton of options, especially if you get up early or can go on a week day. I think Muir Woods suffers from its fame. The better places are less well known, and should probably stay that way.
3
We visited on Mother’s Day (with a parking reservation.) Muir Woods on a weekend at least, has lost any semblance of connection with a beautiful, peaceful redwood sanctuary. It was jam packed, with horrendous bathroom lines, and huge buses from SF. Instead of going to Muir Woods, travel another hour north on Highway 101 to Armstrong Woods, for a quiet, majestic experience with these magnificent trees.
4
Another option, quite close to Muir Woods, is Samuel P. Taylor Park. Though I grew up in the Bay Area, I've yet to visit Muir Woods. We often visited Armstrong Woods, since it's in the town were we vacationed every summer. Closer to home, Samuel P. Taylor was our park of choice, since it never had the crowds.
Muir Woods is gorgeous, amazing, and relatively uncrowded once one flees the main grove, ascends and hikes a bit. One can hike over the hills to the rugged coast, encountering very few fellow explorers. But, yes, Taylor and Armstrong are certainly a lot less crowded.
Sometimes I see more real wilderness when looking into the snow globe on my shelf compared to any artificial wilderness that might be reserved in ultra-chic Marin County.
There is a ton of real wilderness in Marin County, no reservations required, and it is gorgeous. But you have to be a little more investigative to find out where it is than just following what the most famous spot is in the guidebook.
1
I doubt you've ever visited Marin County. If you have, my guess is that you neither ventured beyond the tourist spots nor bothered to gaze up at the majesty of Mt. Tamalpais.
---It' pretty much all good. Between the public coastline, beaches a few short miles away, and the inclusion of huge swaths of contiguous Golden Gate NRA, State Park and municiplevwater district lands, pretty much all of southwestern Marin County is a natural wonderland. Given its proximity to millions of peple, this green-belt is an incomparable suburban treasure. For many area residents, this vast plot of protected lands, criss-crossed by hundreds of miles of hiking, biking, equestrian trails, makes living in an urban area...bearable.
1
"Centuries old" may seem impressive until you realize that the grove of redwoods now called Muir Woods is millenniums old, with trees predating Jesus. Note that John Muir wasn't involved in the creation of the park. That was the work of our congressman, William Kent who bought and donated the land to the Federal park service, which was then set aside by T Roosevelt.
15