Mt Tamalpais is the tallest mountain one sees from Bay area, and it is about 18 miles northwest to the golden gate bridge. A popular location for hiking and biking, local people call the mountain Mt TAM.
 |
| Mt Tamalpais is northwest to San Francisco |
We went there hiking on the morning of Tuesday, May 13, 2025. It was a partially sunny, cool day in the mountain, perfect for hiking.
Our starting point was Pantoll Campground parking lot (Elevation ~ 1600 ft). We took Matt Davis Trail, going west to the trailhead (elevation ~ 45 ft) by the coast. The first couple of kilometers were pretty flat, along the top of a ravine, cool breeze from pacific ocean, bird chirping from tall trees, wild flowers, very tall pine trees, and especially the moss covered tree branches. When we walked .away from ravines, the mountain slope was nearly bare, no more trees.
 |
| start of the hiking |
 |
| moss covered rocks and trees |
 |
| bare mountain at low elevation |
 |
| coast at pacific ocean |
Suddenly I saw something moving in the tall grass ahead of me, an animal with large erected ears - jackrabbit, and which disappeared from sight just as quickly, and I saw the ocean, pacific ocean!
 |
| the big ears of jackrabbit |
More flowers, birds, and jackrabbits, we started to have steep descend among dense tall pine trees, all the way to the coastline at sea level. This hike and trail reminded me south island of New Zealand.
We then retuned on Steep Ravine trail. After a transition on the bare slope, this trail is mostly near the bottom of the ravine, we heard running creek, chirps of birds and saw trees and fallen trees. This trail is more beautiful than Matt Davis trail. More interestingly, we spot a big blue jay on a tree branch, and hang glider in the sky, and we encountered two coyotes!
We enjoyed the leisure 7 mile loop hike in 4 hours, with 1600 feet downhill, and 1600 feet uphill.
 |
| a hang glider in the sky at about the same location for long time |
 |
| the ladder on steep ravine trail |
 |
| mile 1 to 6.5 Matt Davis Trail, 6.5 to 11.4 Steep Ravine |
No comments:
Post a Comment