Walking through Muir Woods

How many places never change? Not many. Development, progress, population growth, revitalization. Things change. But just eleven miles from where the Golden Gate Bridge leaves San Francisco’s urban bustle and lights for Marin County’s shadowy, winding roads is a place that has not changed for eons. Muir Woods.

I have walked through Muir Woods National Monument twice in my lifetime – once in the summer of 1984, more recently this past summer. The trip was a chance to rediscover with Brianna what I had discovered years ago – that wondering through this forest of towering redwoods, standing like silent sentinels for centuries, is truly a unique and inspiring experience.

The tallest of all living things, coastal redwoods, or sequoias, can live up to 2,200 years. At Muir Woods, we gazed up at redwoods as tall as 258 feet and averaging between 600 and 800 years old. I’m not sure we spotted the oldest, but it is said to be at least 1,200 years in age.

It’s believe that nearly two million acres of forest just like Muir Woods once covered a narrow strip along the coasts of California and Oregon. Today, Muir Woods is the only old-growth, coastal redwood forest in the Bay Area and one of the last on the planet. This is thanks to the National Parks Service, which now holds the lands of Muir Woods National Monument as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

President Theodore Roosevelt declared Muir Woods a national monument in 1908. Consisting of 295 acres, it is the first such property donated by private individuals, William and Elizabeth Kent. It is named for John Muir — an inventor, immigrant, botanist, glaciologist, fruit rancher, writer and co-founder of the Sierra Club. Muir’s love of nature, and the preservation of it, is what we can thank him for today. He convinced President Roosevelt to protect Yosemite and Yosemite Valley, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Grand Canyon, and Mt. Rainier as National Parks.

Can you drive through Muir Woods? No. Can you bike? No. Can you camp there? No. Can you picnic there? No. What can you do? Walk. Walk in solitude, think, and listen to the quiet.

Muir Woods contains 6 miles of trails – 1.5 miles of paved or boardwalked trail is mostly flat. There are loops of various lengths as well as longer hikes on trails that extend into surrounding parks. Since it was nearly dusk, we took the shortest loop and still had breathtaking views of thousands of the old-growth, coastal redwoods.

What always leaves a major impression on me about Muir Woods is the silence. One of the characteristics of an old-growth forest is its deep quietude. Its tannin repels insects, and its deep shade limits the number of flowers and fruits produced. This overall lack of food is the primary reason for the scarcity of birds — and the overall calm.

The only thing to break the silence of my most recent walk through Muir Woods was the fussy cry of my 15-month-old granddaughter, Saoirse. I had to chuckle, remembering the silence breaker when I walked this trail 25 years ago – the squabbling of Saoirse’s daddy, then just 12, and his 6-year-old sister.

We stepped inside hollowed-out massive sequoias. Brianna playacted trolls, and we talked about how to count the rings on a tree to learn its age. We also discussed how many other little girls had possibly wondered through this forest — everyone from Gretel to Little Red Riding Hood to, maybe, her best friend Grace.

Little has changed or penetrated the silence of this deep canyon of redwoods for centuries. Because of people like John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt and the Kents, these lofty redwoods will be standing someday when Brianna and Saoirse bring their children to walk in the sequoias’s shadows and listen for their whispers.

There is much beauty to discover in our national park lands all over the country. A little closer to home here in Georgia, you will find:

• Chickamaua & Chattanooga National Military Park
• Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park
• Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
• Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site
• Ocmulgee National Monument
• Andersonville National Historic Site
• Jimmy Carter National Historic Site
• Fort Pulaski National Monument
• Fort Frederica National Monument
• Cumberland Island National Seashore
• National trails that run through Georgia are the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

You can learn more about the history of our national parks by watching the Ken Burns PBS documentary, The National Parks, America’s Best Idea.

See more of Sherri’s adventures on Brown’s Guides.