A Walk in the Woods

In every walk with nature, one receives far more than one seeks.

-- John Muir

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John Muir was an early activist for the preservation of Western wilderness areas, founder of the Sierra Club, and petitioned the Congress for the National Park bill that was adopted in 1890 creating our National Park system.  Muir Woods, home of giant California Coastal Redwoods and a National Park Historic Site, is named for him.

Seeing the giant redwoods has been on our list of places to see for a long time.  Located across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, it is only a short 30 minute drive from downtown San Francisco.  We went early Sunday in order to beat the crowds and find a parking space.  Parking is extremely limited, and even though we arrived before 8:00am, the relatively small parking lot was already 3/4 full.

Muir Woods is very accessible and easy to enjoy which partly explains the throngs of people that come to visit.  There are level paved paths and boardwalks that allow you to experience these trees up close and personal.  The forest is lush and green with a variety of other trees and plants besides the redwoods.  Mona and I took the opportunity to go beyond Muir Woods and hike a 3 mile loop of the Ben Johnson and Dipsea Trails which took us to higher elevations to see these giants from a different perspective.  We should have been able to see out towards the ocean, but the fog was too thick to

see the view.  One surprise was walking through open meadows -- no trees but just open grassland -- until we dropped back down into forest on our way back to the visitor center.

Pictures simply don't do justice to the size and beauty of these magnificent trees.  Although I tried, you can't really capture their enormity.  A walk through Muir Woods vividly captures the foresight and necessity of protecting these special places.