Inside The Redwood Forest At California’s Muir Woods

An excellent reason to visit the Bay Area of California is to visit Muir Woods National Monument. What makes Muir Woods so special and different is its acres of giant, ancient redwood trees.

Muir Woods can make you humble. It’s not just the size of these enormous trees, at nearly 300 feet tall, that is difficult to document in a photograph. Or how the trees soar into space like a green cathedral.

Personally, I find visiting Muir Woods a spiritual, meditative experience. Indeed the sign at Cathedral Grove tells visitors to “enter quietly.” Many logs have a green coat of moss, while ferns and other verdant bushes cover the ground.

There are six miles of hiking trails at Muir Woods, named for pioneering naturalist and ‘father of the National Parks’ John Muir. The main trail is only about a mile. Beginning at the visitor’s center, it circles Redwood Creek on both sides of the stream.

The forest floor is fairly flat. Wood decking makes much of the loop trail accessible to wheelchair users and strollers, both of which I saw on my recent visit.

Some of the trees are split on the bottom, making for selfies “inside the redwood.” The history of Muir Woods is also interesting, both for the struggle to preserve it and because the founding members of the UN met there on May 19, 1945. The meeting was held “to honor the memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, thirty-first President of the United States, Chief Architect of the United Nations and apostle of lasting peace for all mankind.” FDR had died of a stroke in April 1945.

Yet the 80 years since the end of World War II and the conference are but a blip in the life of a redwood. Individual redwood trees are far older than the 250-year-old United States in which they reside. Indeed, a slice of one redwood tree shows it was already 150 years old when William the Conqueror won the battle of Hastings in 1066. Another, which pre-dates the building of cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde in 1100, was born in 909AD.

Nonetheless, the redwood was regarded as a resource. According to a guide, 96% of California’s redwoods were cut down from the 19th century to today.

What makes redwood lumber so beloved? Builders appreciated the remarkably strong, gorgeous wood that launched a million California decks. At my first home in West Hollywood, I installed a redwood deck. It was beautiful, and the tannins in the redwood made it resistant to bugs.

Now, redwood is hard to find at your local Home Depot. But find the towering redwoods at Muir Woods you will.

Muir Woods National Monument remains home to one of the largest surviving groups of the biggest trees on earth.

These are the coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) .The coastal redwoods grow from the Central California coast north into Oregon. They grow best in moderate temperatures and near or in streams. Steelhead trout and coho salmon swim into the streams when they swell with rain to spawn.

Muir Woods and Redwood National Park, also in California, remains home to some of earth’s tallest living things. The largest tree at Redwood National Park measures 379 feet tall with a 22-foot diameter. Its bark alone is 12 inches thick.

While the redwoods at Muir Woods are not quite as tall, they still reach an awe-inspiring height. The tallest at Muir is over 258 high, the height of a 23-story building.

At up to 2000 years old, the coast redwoods are also among the oldest living things on earth, although smaller Bristlecone pines are believed to live more than 4700 years. The mature redwoods at Muir range in age from 500 to perhaps 1000 years old.

The redwoods of Muir Woods have survived fires and floods, as well as the logging that took down so many of their brethren.

Admission to the park is $15. You’ll need to make a reservation for parking. Like the redwoods, Muir Woods was in danger of being loved to death, so the National Parks Service instituted its first reservation system there.

Muir Woods is about an hour from San Francisco by rental car or tour bus. It’s a drive along a winding road after one crosses the Golden Gate. The journey is part of the destination, as the nearby headlands provide a spectacular view of San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The reservation system helps, but the roads to Muir Woods can be crowded with cars and bikes. Bus tours that will pick you up from San Francisco and leave the driving to them are available from TripAdvisor, Viator and many others. The price is often less than $100 per person, including admission.

Parking and shuttle reservations can be made here. If you choose not to drive but to take the ferry to Larkspur Landing or the Sausalito Ferry Terminal, you don’t have to pay for parking but will need shuttle reservations both ways.