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TRIP 12 Mt. Tamalpais: South Side Ramble

Distance		7.1 miles, Semi-loop
Hiking Time		4 to 5 hours
Elevation Gain/Loss		±1100 feet
Difficulty		Difficult
Best Times		All year
Agency		Parking, CSP; trails CSP, MMWD
Recommended Map		Trails of Mt. Tamalpais and the Marin Headlands (Olmsted)

HIGHLIGHTS This semi-loop route, using the Hogback, Matt Davis, Nora, Rock Spring, and Bootjack trails, starts across Panoramic Highway from Mountain Home and takes you past two other Mt. Tamalpais landmarks, West Point Inn and Mountain Theater. Along the way, you will explore the mountain’s south side, which alternates between chaparral and forest, with some attractive stands of coast redwoods. Although the fire roads on this side of the mountain are popular with mountain bicyclists, this route stays mostly on single-track trails, which are closed to bicycles.

DIRECTIONS From Highway 101 northbound in Mill Valley, take the Highway 1/Mill Valley/Stinson Beach exit. After exiting, stay in the right lane as you go under Highway 101. You are now on Shoreline Highway (Highway 1). About 1 mile from Highway 101, get in the left lane, and, at a stoplight, follow Shoreline Highway as it turns left.

Continue another 2.7 miles to Panoramic Highway and turn right. Go 2.6 miles to a parking area, left, just opposite the Mountain Home Inn. If this lot is full, as it may be on nice weekends, there is an overflow parking area 0.1 mile back (southeast) on Panoramic Highway

From Highway 101 southbound in Mill Valley, take the Highway 1 North/Stinson Beach exit. After exiting, bear right, go 0.1 mile to a stop sign, and turn left. You are now on Shoreline Highway (Highway 1). Go 0.5 mile to a stoplight, turn left, and follow the directions in the second paragraph, above.

It is also possible to park along the start of Gravity Car Grade, just north of the main parking area, but this dirt road is often deeply rutted and may damage your car. To find Gravity Car Grade, continue northwest on Panoramic Highway about 60 feet past the entrance to the main parking area. Turn right, go 75 feet, passing a private gravel driveway, right. At a fork, bear right again, onto Gravity Car Grade, a dirt road. (The left-hand fork is a fire-station access road: do not block it!) Park along the side of the road.

FACILITIES/TRAILHEAD There are water, phone, and toilets in the parking area. Food and lodging are available at Mountain Home Inn, just across Panoramic Highway from the parking area. The trailhead is on the north end of the main parking area.

Carefully cross Panoramic Highway, turn left, and continue north for about 60 feet to a paved road that branches right. This is the access road to the Throckmorton Ridge fire station. Follow this road uphill, veering left as you pass first a private driveway and then the start of Gravity Car Grade, a dirt road, both right.

Continuing uphill toward the fire station on a gentle grade, you enter MMWD lands. When you reach the station, you go around its left side and begin a moderate climb on a dirt road, called the Hogback Trail on the Olmsted map and the Throckmorton Trail on an upcoming trail post. This area contains a preview of some of the trees and shrubs commonly found on Mt. Tamalpais, including Douglas-fir, California bay, madrone, chamise, coyote brush, evergreen huckleberry, bush poppy, and several varieties of manzanita.

Passing a dirt-and-gravel road that joins from the left, you soon circle around the right side of a water tank and then reach a junction. Here the Hogback (Throckmorton) Trail continues steeply uphill, but your route, the single-track Matt Davis Trail, named for an early Mt. Tam trail builder and member of the Tamalpais Conservation Club, veers left and climbs a set of wooden steps.

Now you enter a brushy, overgrown area of trees and shrubs. These thickets soon give way to a forest of mostly tanbark oak and madrone. The trail now maintains a contour on the edge of a canyon, left. After a wet winter, this canyon, which holds Fern Creek, may be filled with rushing water, its sound a pleasant accompaniment to your footfalls. Coast redwoods rise from the canyon.

Soon you reach an unsigned junction, right, with the Hoo-Koo-E-Koo Trail. This odd name was bestowed by a member of the Tamalpais Conservation Club to honor an Indian tribe that was supposed to have lived nearby. Here you continue straight, and after about 150 feet reach a wood bridge that crosses Fern Creek. After crossing the bridge, you turn left and begin a moderate climb that soon eases and then levels. Areas of chaparral give you the chance to study plants such as chinquapin, manzanita, chaparral pea, yerba santa, and dwarf interior live oak.

Gaining elevation again and crossing a few seasonal creeks which may dampen the trail, you can just barely see the buildings of West Point Inn through the trees uphill and left. With Laguna Creek left and downhill, you come to a junction marked by a trail post, where the route forks. The Matt Davis Trail heads left across a bridge over the creek, but your route, the Nora Trail, goes straight and begins a relentless climb via switchbacks to West Point Inn.

Soon the trail turns left, crosses Laguna Creek on a wooden bridge, and then veers right and resumes its uphill course, steep in places, through a forest of spindly redwoods. As you get farther from the creek, the redwoods give way to tanbark oak, toyon, huckleberry, and poison oak. Dark-eyed juncos — small black-headed birds with a pink bill and white along the sides of their tails — may be flitting through the trees in noisy flocks.

A clearing with picnic tables and a water fountain signals your arrival at West Point Inn, a wonderful place to stop, rest, and enjoy the view. Restrooms are on the Inn’s east side; find them by walking through the covered deck area.

West Point Inn

From the deck West Point Inn, you have fine views that range from Mt. Diablo to the Pacific Ocean. Drinks and snacks are available when the Inn is open. Rustic overnight accommodations are available here at $25 per person per night for adults, $12 for children under 18, free for children under 5. For reservations, call (415) 646-0702, Tuesday through Friday, 11 A.M. to 7 P.M.

To resume hiking, follow Old Railroad Grade uphill, around the west side of the inn. After about 125 feet, turn left onto the Rock Spring Trail, a single track, and follow it on a level grade through a corridor of chaparral. At about 2 miles, you step across Spike Buck Creek, only a foot or so wide, and then begin to gain elevation over rocky, eroded ground.

Soon you reach a junction, right, with the Alice Eastwood Trail. The trail name honors noted botanist Alice Eastwood (1859–1953), who for 57 years was curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences. The naming of Eastwood manzanita, a local species, and the designation of Camp Alice Eastwood, which lies just north of Muir Woods, were two more honors bestowed upon the woman whom author Dorothy L. Whitnah called “the patron saint” of Mt. Tamalpais.

West Point Inn is a popular spot on the south side of Mt. Tamalpais.

Continuing straight on the Rock Spring Trail, you walk on the edge of a steep drop-off, left, high above Old Stage Road. After crossing Rattlesnake Creek on rocks, you follow the trail as it bends left and begins a gentle, then moderate, ascent. (Rattlesnakes are found on Mt. Tamalpais and have been seen in this area.)

The route traverses an outcrop of gray-green serpentine, then passes a seasonal creek, bends left, and enters a wooded area. Just as you emerge from the trees, you may notice a rock bearing a plaque with the inscription: TO JOHN M. COLIER, A LOVER OF NATURE. Colier, an eccentric Scot and one of the early Mt. Tam trail builders, has two features on the mountain’s north side named for him, a spring and a trail.

The trail descends, crosses more seasonal creeks, and then climbs past a rest bench to a fork. Here the Rock Spring Trail goes right, but you continue straight, passing two water fountains, left, at the edge of the Mountain Theater.

Just past the fountains, turn left and walk down a series of stone steps, toward the stage area. Once at the level of the stage, continue behind it. When you are directly behind the center of the stage, you turn left and descend a few more steps and then walk down a path that connects to the Bootjack Trail. About 150 feet from the back of the stage, you reach a T-junction with the Bootjack Trail. (Restrooms are about 100 yards uphill and right.)

Here you turn left and follow the Bootjack Trail as it switchbacks downhill on a moderate grade, past little streams that gather to form the headwaters of Redwood Creek. Continuing downhill through a small ravine, you finally emerge from the forest into a grassy area dotted with California poppies, blue-eyed grass, and false lupine. A final descent on wooden steps brings you to a T-junction with Old Stage Road, at about 4 miles.

Mountain Theater

Dramatic productions have been given almost every summer since 1913 on Mt. Tamalpais, except during wartime, most of them at Mountain Theater, a large amphitheater with stone seats. Most of the construction on this impressive venue, involving about 5000 massive stones moved into position by cranes and derricks, was done during the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Here you turn right, walk about 40 feet to a paved road, and then turn left. After 50 feet or so, you turn right onto the continuation of the Bootjack Trail, a single track. Now, at first with the aid of a few wooden steps, you pursue a moderate downhill grade through forest, with the creek you have been following since just below the Mountain Theater on your right. A short descent puts you at the Bootjack picnic area, where trails sprout in all directions.

From here, both the Bootjack Trail to Muir Woods and the Matt Davis Trail to the Pantoll Campground head right. Your route, the Matt Davis Trail to Mountain Home, a single track, goes sharply left. Alternating between sun and shade, the trail finds a rolling course over ridges and into gullies, including one that holds bridged Rattlesnake Creek. Crossing Spike Buck Creek via a bridge, you contour across a ridge and then enter the canyon holding Laguna Creek. Close the loop at a T-junction with the Nora Trail, then turn right and retrace your route to the parking area.