Muir Woods National Monument

Muir Woods: A Walk Among the Ancients

14 stops· 31 min· 2.4 mi

A walk back into deep time — through one of the last old-growth coast redwood forests on Earth, tucked in a fog-fed canyon just twelve miles north of the Golden Gate. Ranger Quinn guides you on foot up the main trail along Redwood Creek and back down the Hillside Trail: the tallest living things on the planet, some of them well over a thousand years old, standing in a cathedral hush while a salmon stream runs at their feet. You'll learn how a redwood drinks the fog, why fire only makes it stronger, and how to read a family circle of trees grown from a single fallen giant. Ranger Boone Merrick rides along with the tales this grove has earned: the wealthy couple who bought the canyon to save it from a dam and then refused to put their own name on it; the gentle, wild-haired man it was named for instead; and the spring day in 1945 when the diplomats building the United Nations came here, into the trees, to mourn a president. It's an easy, mostly level walk on a paved path — bring a light jacket, because it's cool and damp under the canopy, and remember your parking or shuttle reservation, because you cannot just drive up to Muir Woods.