The Stephenson Families' Great Californian Adventure

Muir Woods / Mount Tamalpais

Last weekend we took advantage of the sunshine and visited Mount Tamalpais which is about 30 minutes from our house on the pacific shoreline. Its a beautiful area, a big national park with lots of hiking trails, camping, and a big redwood forest, which I had always wanted to experience. We went there at 9:30 AM and the car park was already full, when we left a little after noon the cars were parked probably almost a mile from the entrance to the park, its THAT popular! Karina loved it there as did we - exploring the forest and looking at the stream/river (which we were told often has a lot of salmon, especially in spawning season). There'd been a recent hatch of butterflies and the entire carpark and ranger station areas were swarming with small red butterflies, we even got one to sit on Karinas hand, but of course she refused to simply sit still and watch it so that experience lasted all of five seconds!

Theres a boardwalk right through one part of the forest so anyone can visit - strollers, young kids, disabled or old people are all catered for and of course it protects the forest by keeping people on a determined path. Theres hiking trails too for the more adventurous / mobile visitors, and that definately didn't apply to us! Check out the beautiful scenery:







Karina found a "wild animal" to ride on:

posted by Shaun S @ 4:23 PM