In the spring, the grassy slopes of Mount Tamalpais are dotted with wildflowers.
The San Francisco Bay Area is urban in nature. Or perhaps more accurately, it is “urban within Nature.” The Bay Area is a conglomeration of cities and suburbs that are enveloped by a ring of open-space lands, parks, and preserves, which beckon us to come and explore.
It seems incongruous, but despite its six million human inhabitants, the San Francisco Bay Area is the most wild metropolitan area in the United States. Although grizzly bears no longer roam the Bay Area as they did 150 years ago, coyotes still gallop across the grasslands, herds of tule elk wander the coastal hills, and mountain lions and bobcats stalk their prey. Elephant seals still breed on the Bay Area’s beaches, river otters ply the waterways, wild pigs root for acorns, and golden eagles and peregrine falcons soar overhead.
The Bay Area has all the right ingredients for hiking nirvana: a mild year-round climate, a varied landscape, and an abundance of public land crisscrossed by trails. The Bay Area’s mosaic of open space includes federally designated parks such as Point Reyes National Seashore, Muir Woods National Monument, and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, plus an incredible wealth of California state parks.
If you hike much in the Bay Area, you will be awed by the beauty and grace of centuries-old virgin redwoods. You’ll wonder at the sight of rare and precious wildflowers, some of which grow here and nowhere else in the world. Your ears will be filled with the sound of crashing surf against miles of jagged coastal bluffs. You’ll gaze at waterfalls coursing down basalt cliffs, pouring over sandstone precipices, and even dashing to the sea. You’ll stand on summits and look down thousands of feet to the valleys below. In autumn, you’ll watch black oaks and bigleaf maples turn bright gold, and in winter, you’ll see a dusting of snow fall on the Bay Area’s high peaks and ridges.
This much is certain: Whenever and wherever you choose to hike in the Bay Area, you’ll be witness to an urban wilderness like no other.
