Pacific Journey: Muir Woods and Up the Coast

Heading north from San Francisco, I took the boys to Muir Woods National Monument. It is named for John Muir, the famous naturalist and conservationist whose dedication and love of wilderness led to the protection of vast areas of beautiful, ecologically valuable lands in the West. Muir Woods holds one of the last stands of old growth Coastal Redwoods.

I adore Muir Woods. Sunlight filters through the tall trees to highlight patches of the forest floor below. Gentle creeks flow past. Fallen logs give homes to small critters. Birds call in the distance or flutter nearby, and fresh air fills one’s lungs. Moss, soft to the touch, and numerous ferns create a green garden below the canopy. It’s magical.

The first time I went to Muir Woods was with my mother while we lived in the San Francisco area years ago. There were few people in the park that day, so we found ourselves truly immersed in the sounds and beauty of the woodlands without disturbance. In contrast, the park was quite crowded during my visit with my boys. I’d encourage my sons to tread softly and to whisper, letting the sounds of birds, running water, and rustling leaves reach our ears… then suddenly loud stomping children would race past us, or people would chat loudly on their cell phones, families would call down the path to each other, etc.

I don’t mean to sound grumpy, but having once experienced the magic of this place in relative solitude, I was sad for all those people who would leave the park having missed out on what nature wanted to share. Silence in the woods is golden.

The boys and I did take a longer path at Muir Woods, and that gave us brief bits of time without human noise.

The boys and I often play little games during our outdoor treks. For example, sometimes we hold contests to see who can spot the most, say, lizards. This journey, we tallied nature points. If someone spotted something new or unusual, made a particularly good observation, made a good connection to previous encounters, etc., he or she would get a nature point, the idea this time being that the winner would get some sort of prize that we’d figure out later (most of the time, it’s just the honor of being the winner). Cool spider webs, colorful centipedes, nests, curling fronds — they all have the potential to be a nature point. Also, someone else has to verify the observation — in other words, no points for birds spotted that fly away too quickly out of sight. It’s a really casual thing, but it keeps us all near one another and sharing what we see. As a mom and a naturalist, I want to encourage my boys to love nature as much as I do, so games like these, even with teenagers who know exactly what I’m up to, help us all be better observers and to truly connect to the magnificent “real world.”

We all, of course, took time to hug the trees. That, too, earned us each a nature point. My eldest son was so appreciative of the Redwoods that he took a picture to become his new phone avatar.

After Muir Woods, it was time to get back on the road. We didn’t know where we’d end up spending the night — I had built in flexibility with our trip in case we wanted to linger here and there, so only certain key places/dates were officially booked to ensure availability and to help keep us on schedule enough to make it back to Seattle for our eventual flight back to Texas. So we headed north to see what we could see.

What we saw was stunning. Though the northern California coast is less dramatic in appearance than the central coast, we finally experienced a break from the clouds and fog, and that meant blue waters at last.

We ended up camping overnight at Salt Point State Park, timing our morning rise to visit nearby tide pools at Gerstle Cove during low tide. That worked out really well, as you will see with the next post.