Muir Woods National Monument

July 4th is special. People seem so happy and not afraid to show their patriotic blue+red+white colors, and more importantly it is a long weekend that falls in summer. Bay area, California is hike friendly all year round, but summer makes it much easier to hike along the ocean and also in the woods. I have a bucket list of the places I want to visit. Muir Woods National Monument (just Muir Woods for this blog) has been on the list the longest. Even after living 50 miles away from Muir Woods, I have not been there. The main reason being fear: fear that was instilled by friends, colleagues, and people on the internet. I heard horror stories of limited parking, how visitors are not friendly at all, and how noisy it is, that ruins the whole experience. So I feared going to Muir Woods. We were throwing ideas for places to visit during July 4th weekend and Muir Woods came up. We couldn’t decide until Saturday night 8pm that we wanted to go or not. We read every bit of information on the internet and made the commitment to go Sunday morning. I must say I am so glad we went. It was a great experience. Tips from my own experience today might give you some confidence to take the plunge to go to Muir Woods before the County makes reservations mandatory.

Go early. I can’t stress this enough! We woke up at 5:30am and left at 6:30 (can’t believe it myself since our toddler S was in the equation too!!). We reached Muir Woods parking lot just before 8am. The first parking lot was already full! And the second parking lot was 98% full. Parking is so limited in Muir Woods that people reach there around 7am. And then there are people who are so inconsiderate that they take up part of second spot making it useless to park. Anyways, my point is, go early. It’s always a good idea to get there early. There are multiple benefits to reach early: a) you get a parking spot and don’t have to park few miles down the road. even if you decide to take the shuttle, arriving early is better. See next.. b) It is so much quieter in the morning, before the big rush around noon. We hiked the Ocean View Trail and met few hikers. It was so quiet that we could hear the birds chirping, wind blowing, and water running though the little creeks. When we were coming back to the visitor center around 11am, we could hear people chatter. Chatter is so loud that I couldn’t hear any of the natural sounds!! c) Since we have a toddler who walks slow, it took us longer to do the hike. With fewer people around, we didn’t have much problem since we could go on our own pace. d) We started hiking at 8:30am and went up the Ocean View Trail. We hiked back to the base around 11am which was perfect for our meal times. Picnicking is not allowed on the trail. There are few benches by the gift shop where you can eat. If we started later, then we couldn’t have hiked as much as we did, since toddler S becomes a hungry monster around noon.
Wear jacket. I was not expecting cold weather on July 3rd when it is officially summer time. But it was pretty chilly, also because we were very early (started hiking at 8:15am). The sun came out around 1pm and it got little warmer. So it is better to dress in layers.
Take food. I always try to take home-made lunch for hikes, otherwise it is such a hassle to find something to eat at the parks which is always over-priced! The food at Muir Woods cafe inside the park was okay, little overpriced, and not many vegetarian options. Since picnicking is not allowed at the Muir Woods National Monument, we drove a little to the Muir Wood Overlook which has picnic benches. It was little windy but manageable. The view was gorgeous. So we had lunch overlooking the pacific ocean and drove back home afterwards.

PHOTOS AND DESCRIPTION

Muir Woods is gorgeous. Period. You turn few degrees and you will see a new image. It is very green, and there are few creeks on the hikes too. You can hear the birds chirping, water flowing, and wind blowing. The smell of Eucalyptus trees on the way to Muir Woods is mesmerizing 🙂