Muir Woods and Stinson Beach, California
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| Grand old trees |
After visiting the Point Reyes lighthouse we started our drive to Muir Woods National Monument, described as `an old-growth' coast redwood forest, meaning the forest has grown naturally undisturbed for hundreds of years. The drive was a scenic one through wooded areas and was topped by the winding hilly coast-hugging drive via Stinson Beach.
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| San Francisco in the distance shrouded by a light haze |
We got stunning views of the San Francisco coastline from the road and every now and then stopped to appreciate the beauty (and take photographs of course). As beautiful as the ride was for me, it was torture for my friend who gets dizzy on hilly roads. Almost the entire trip to and fro was spent with her eyes squeezed tightly shut, taking deep breaths and saying `this is torture'! She absolutely refused to take the same route back to San Francisco the next day. We may have another hill holiday in India planned for her this year in India. Don’t tell her! I plan to have tons of the travel nausea pill Avomine on hand.
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| Reach up up up to the sky |
Before starting out, we stopped by at Perry's Deli in Tomales Bay and picked up an array of sandwiches, cookies, pies and whatnot to eat on the way. The stuff was not cheap but the sandwiches were very nice and mine had almost an inch of black forest ham in it and a good amount of mustard on soft white bread. I could not get through more than half in one sitting. Perry's Deli is great for foodstuff if you're in that area and are heading off for a picnic.
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| Old growth forest |
Our lunch ended up being an inadvertent stop in the middle of nowhere on our way to Muir Woods when we realised that almost an entire bottle of water had leaked out and flooded the floor of the back seat. So we stopped by the side of the road, pulled out our food and ate on the trunk of the car.
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| Stinson Beach
Made it to Muir Woods just about an hour before its 5 p.m. closing and walked the shortest trail through the tall redwoods and other trees. The redwoods there are as old as 800 years and the tallest is 258 feet. The woods are beautiful and interesting with some of the trees having such fascinating `architecture’. There was one tree which actually had a cave built in to its base making it seem like something out of an Enid Blyton book.
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| The end of a lovely day
There are many trails one can walk on depending on how much time you have to spare around that area. Unfortunately (as usual) we didn’t have much of that luxury. It had got quite cold by then and my light sweatshirt didn’t quite cut it. Somehow I never seem to get it right with winter clothing. I always take too little on a holiday and even if I have the right item, it’s never around me when I need it.
Right, back to Muir Woods. I did mention it’s an old growth forest, and by that, it means it’s largely undisturbed by human hand and that dead trees are not cleared away but are allowed to fall back on the ground and enrich the soil and provide a whole ecosystem for a large number of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, insects and plants. For those who are really interested in nature and want to learn more about what the term describes, this web page explains it very well.
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| ...now you don't |
As our time at the woods ended, I was quite disappointed that we had so little of it but at the same time happy to get into the warmth of the car. Would hope to go back there and spend some quality time exploring and walking the trails. We then headed back to Tomales Bay with a stop at Stinson beach where we watched the sun go down. It was also fascinating to watch the patterns made by the flow and ebb of the tide on the shore as the waves crisscrossed each other.
We ended our day by tucking into pizzas baked in a wood fired oven at Cafe Reyes in Inverness. Good friends, great travel and junk food, what more could a girl want.
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