February 23, 1997: Golden Gate National Recreation Area

There are at least four routes out of this valley to the north, though one of them dead-ends. Right at the trailhead, you can take the Miwok Trail up to the north; it will lead you to highway 1, near its intersection with the Panoramic Highway, and from there on down to Muir Woods.

If you start down the valley along the paved but gated-off road toward the coast, in somewhat less than half a mile opposite a stand of eucalypti you'll see a trail leading off up a valley to the northwest, on your right. This takes you to the Haypress Campground. Once you get there, your only choice -- other than striking off cross-country -- is to return to the Tennessee Valley proper.

A very short distance on down the road, the Fox Trail also takes off on the right, winding its way up a ridge out of the valley. This is the route we took this time around.

Just under a mile further down the valley, the Coastal Trail will take you up out of the valley, too. And half a mile beyond that, you'll come to the short beach that makes up Tennessee Cove; years ago, you could climb out here, along a hair-raising precipice, and join the Coastal Trail on the flats up above, but I gather that this is no longer permitted.

We started off up the Fox Trail, which for its entire length seems to be a fairly wide dirt trail, heavily eroded by the winter streams that run down its length. Getting out of the valley is a bit of a climb, up open hillsides with relatively little brush, and with a growing temptation to keep stopping and turning around to catch the gradually expanding views to the south, east and west.

You climb to about four hundred feet, after which the path shallows off for a short distance, then begins to climb again. By the time you reach the junction with the Coyote Trail, you can see -- on a clear day -- most of the East Bay, including the two summits of Mt. Diablo and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge as well as the Farallon Islands out in the Pacific. The old Nike base on Wolf Ridge's Hill 88 is in clear view across the valley, and you can even see the TransAmerica Tower in San Francisco peeking through a notch in the ridge to the south of the valley.

Continuing along the Fox Trail is probably the shortest, but perhaps not the most interesting, way to Muir Beach; the Coastal Trail has many attractions that recommend it. But even if you decide to turn west down the Coyote Trail, you should make a short 1/10-mile detour up the Fox Trail to its summit, from which you have beautiful views in all directions, including northwards over Green Gulch toward Mt. Tamalpais. The view up and down the coast is also impressive, but there will be better, though lower, along the Coastal Trail.

Retrace your steps to the Coyote Trail and start down. Careful -- parts of this trail are fairly steep and rocky. The Coyote Trail has little to recommend it except as a quick way down to the Coastal Trail, which you encounter on a small grassy patch about 3/4 of a mile from the start of the trail and some 500 feet above the Pacific.

There are no trees along the Coastal Trail -- or any of the rest of this route, for that matter; wear headgear on sunny days. It has generally open views, but there are lots of plants and various kinds of brush fringing the trail.

From its junction with the Coyote Trail, the Coastal Trail descends fairly quickly, down to the 200-foot level; the last stretch of this descent is along a series of several dozen wooden beams recently embedded in the trail as a staircase.

Just below the staircase, the trail doubles back to the right, up a little canyon with a brook flowing through the bottom. You contour up this canyon for perhaps a quarter of a mile or so until you reach a crossing of the creeklet. Watch along the right side of the trail through here for some interesting plant life -- I will swear that I found a few wild strawberry plants, recognizable both for the triple heavily-serrated leaves and for the tiny yellow flower with the five cream petals.

The question arose in my mind at this point: why drop down to 200 feet, only to climb back up to 400 feet? The answer may lie in the name of this stretch of coastline between Tennessee Valley and Muir Beach: Pirates Cove. The name, I believe, comes from the rum runners who used to use the mouth of this tiny valley as a landing point for their "goods" during Prohibition. Obviously, they would have had to bring their goods out along a trail leading up the canyon. Presumably, when the Golden Gate National Recreation Area was created several decades ago, it would have made good financial sense to use this trail rather than building a whole new one, even if one built explicitly to traverse the coastline would follow slightly different contours than one made to lead up from sea level.

Once you have crossed the creeklet, you will contour on up the hillside and back toward the west; and as you get a better view of the mouth of the valley, you can see that there is indeed a minor trail leading up from the ocean to the place where the Coastal Trail reaches its low point and doubles back inland. This, of course, proves nothing -- lots of hikers have probably wanted to descend to the water here -- but it is at least indicative.

Coming around the headland, stop and relax on the grass at the high point and look back to the trail on the far side of the canyon, and enjoy the view of hikers traveling south as they slog their way up the route you came swiftly down. To the north, you'll see a small pass through which the trail leads on the other side of the next canyon -- this is, essentially, the gateway to Muir Beach.

Continue down into the next canyon -- not as much of a drop as the last one, not as much of a climb out after you cross its wooden bridge. In short order, you are on open, grassy slopes. Make your way up to the above-mentioned pass and turn off to the left, toward the short stretches of fence on this headland. Just beyond them is a grassy swale where you can throw yourself on the ground -- nice to do if there is a strong, cold northeast wind -- and enjoy the sun. The coastal views from this point are excellent. To the south you can see the headlands of the ridge you are crossing, the headland of Wolf Ridge, Bird Rock beyond Rodeo Lagoon, and Point Bonita -- and then, some distance beyond that, the San Mateo coastline, pointing out into the water.

To the north, you see, beyond Muir Beach and its enclave of homes, the rocky face on the south side of Muir Beach Overlook, and, in the distance, both Point Bolinas and Point Reyes.

When you've had your fill of both view and rest, return to the main trail; note that this is the point you would have reached -- perhaps more quickly, perhaps less interestingly -- by following the Fox Trail. Turn to the left and start your descent toward Muir Beach. The trail, now simply an extension of the Fox Trail and little better than a fire road, turns shortly to the right and curves away from the beach; but this is just a relatively short switchblack. Below a nice rock outcropping, covered with moss, lichen and ferns, the road curves sharply back toward the left. In a couple of hundred more yards, after passing the turnoff on your right to the Green Gulch Trail, you come out into the tree-filled south part of Muir Beach. Cross the obvious wooden bridge, pass through the picnic area, and you find yourself in the Muir Beach parking lot.

Don Harlow