Finding the Trails
The California State Automobile Association (CSAA) gives its members free road maps–our favorites are San Francisco Bay and Monterey Bay in CSAA’s California Regional series. Thomas Guide’s Metropolitan Bay Area Street Guide and Directory is a helpful driving atlas. Online map services such as Google Maps and MapQuest can also help you find the best routes to the parks.
Privately Published and Agency Maps
Park maps and brochures of all the trails in this guide would fill a large shoebox. Style, quality, and accuracy vary. A fair number of maps are drawn with full trail detail and elevation contours. Others are simple sketch maps, and for a few parks, no map is available. Agencies are increasingly augmenting printed maps with digital maps on their Web sites. Sources for maps are listed below, by chapter.
At parks with staffed entrance kiosks or visitor centers, ask there for maps. Visitor centers may also have maps for nearby parks. Other trailheads have map holders where you can pick up park brochures and maps. Also check the Web site of the agency administering the park or open space to see if downloadable maps are available.
North Bay Trail Maps
Privately Published Maps
The Rambler’s Guide to Mt. Tamalpais and the Marin Headlands by Olmsted & Bros. Map Co. has long been the best overall map for the Marin Headlands, Muir Woods National Monument, Mt. Tamalpais, and Pine Mountain areas (Trails 1–5). Wilderness Press’s map of Point Reyes National Seashore and West Marin Parklands extends east from Point Reyes to show Pine Mountain and Samuel P. Taylor State Park (Trails 5–7). Pease Press’s map Trails of Northeast Marin County shows the area from China Camp State Park to Mt. Burdell (Trails 8 and 9). A new series of maps by Tom Harrison Maps covers most of Marin in excellent detail, from the Golden Gate to Point Reyes and Mt. Burdell (Trails 1–9). 360Geographics publishes several excellent trail maps showing China Camp, Annadel, Jack London, and Sugarloaf state parks (Trails 8 and 11–13).
Agency Maps
The basic Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) brochure includes a simple trail map of the Marin Headlands (Trail 1). The brochure for Muir Woods National Monument includes only a sketch trail map of the main coast redwood grove, but the park store sells an excellent map of Muir Woods National Monument published by Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (Trail 2).
State park maps for the North Bay are problematic—typically they have been available only at entrance kiosks or visitor centers, which may be open only on weekends. Brochures and maps currently available on the Web site include Mt. Tamalpais, China Camp, and Annadel state parks (Trails 3, 4, 8, and 11). The old two-color map for Samuel P. Taylor State Park (Trail 6) should be taken with a grain of salt. There is no state park map for Robert Louis Stevenson State Park (Trail 2) and the entrance station at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park (Trail 13) provides only a simple sketch map.
Marin Municipal Water District has print and online trail maps that include the Pine Mountain area (Trail 5). You can get a map of Mt. Burdell Open Space Preserve (Trail 9) at Marin County Open Space District’s Web site and by mail. A simple but accurate map of Skyline Wilderness Park is available at the entrance kiosk and from the Skyline Park Citizens Association Web site.
East Bay Trail Maps
Privately Published Maps
Olmsted’s Rambler’s Guides to the Northern East Bay and Central East Bay give a great overview of the Oakland Hills, showing Wildcat Ridge, Tilden, Sibley, Redwood, and Briones Regional Parks (Trails 15–19).
Save Mt. Diablo’s excellent new map of Mt. Diablo, Los Vaqueros, and Surrounding Parks extends from Mt. Diablo State Park east to Black Diamond Mines and Morgan Territory regional preserves (Trails 20–22). Mt. Diablo Interpretive Association publishes a smaller map focused solely on Mt. Diablo State Park (Trail 21).
Agency Maps
East Bay Regional Park District has excellent trail maps at trailheads, by mail, and from its Web site. A basic trail map of Mt. Diablo State Park is available at the state park Web site and (when staffed) at ranger stations.
South Bay Trail Maps
Privately Published Maps
The Pine Ridge Association publishes the excellent Trail and Camping Map of Henry W. Coe State Park (Trail 30), which can be purchased at the park’s visitor center. The visitor center also has free handouts describing hikes of varying lengths.
Agency Maps
Santa Clara County Parks has printed maps at its trailheads and PDF maps on its Web site; these are also available by mail (Trails 28, 29, and 31). Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District maps are available at its trailheads, by mail, and as PDFs from its Web site (Trails 32 and 33).
Peninsula Trail Maps
Privately Published Maps
The most detailed maps of the parks and preserves from Monte Bello Ridge north to Kings Mountain are the Trail Center’s Trail Map of the Southern Peninsula (Trails 34–38, distributed by Wilderness Press) and Wilderness Press’s Central San Francisco Peninsula Trails (Trails 39–41, with data provided by the Trail Center). Pease Press’s Trails of the Coastside map includes Montara Mountain and San Bruno Mountain (Trails 42 and 43).
Agency Maps
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District maps are available at its trailheads, by mail, and from its Web site (Trails 34–40). Maps for San Mateo County Parks are also available at entrance stations, by mail, and from its Web site (Trails 41, 42, and 43). Maps for GGNRA’s Phleger Estate (Trail 41) and the Presidio (Trail 44) are available at the Presidio’s visitor centers and from the GGNRA Web site.
USGS Topographic Maps
The US Geological Survey’s topographic quadrangles are great, general-purpose maps showing roads, streams, tree cover, and elevation contours. The 7.5 minute, 1:24,000 scale series are best for hiking. They usually show major trails and dirt roads, but trails and public land boundaries can be incomplete or outdated. You may find that the privately-published trail maps and the agency maps listed above are more useful on the trail (many of them are based on USGS maps).
Although few outdoor retailers now carry printed USGS maps, you can purchase maps for the entire western US at the USGS’s Western Regional Office in Menlo Park, now jointly operated by the California Geological Survey (open weekdays, 10 A.M.–4 P.M.). Several online retailers including Map Link also sell printed USGS maps by mail.
Using TOPO!, a computer program from National Geographic Maps, you can view and print USGS maps from a CD-ROM on your computer. Using a slightly awkward interface, you can also draw routes, insert labels, measure distance, plot elevation gain and loss, and locate landmarks. If you have a GPS unit you can load waypoints from a TOPO! map into your GPS (so you can find them in the field), and also take waypoints stored in your GPS during a hike and plot them in TOPO!
Another alternative is to view and print USGS maps over the Internet, either via members-only services such as Trails.com, or for free at Acme Mapper (as seamless maps) and the Internet Archive (as scanned quadrangles). See below for complete Web addresses.
Useful Map Web Sites
The following Web sites will help you find the maps mentioned in this appendix, as well as several others that you might find useful: