redwoods at Muir Woods

click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

A significant portion of San Francisco visitors end up on a little side-trip on the "other" side of the Golden Gate Bridge to visit and commune wth the tall Redwoods at Muir Woods National Monument.

In fact, so many people want to visit that they need to be shuttle-bussed in from nearby Mill Valley on weekends.   Arrive in an automobile any later than 10AM even on weekdays and you probably are going to have some difficulty finding parking.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Redwood trees, although massive, have relatively shallow root systems.   After many hundreds of years they tend to finally topple over, returning their nutrients to the soil while providing a home to a wide variety of bugs and critters.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Moss is common in the moist environment.   The ocean isn't far away -- thick and moody fog tends to lurk at Muir Woods when other areas farther inland are sunny.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Don't know if you can tell, but that's bubbling Redwood Creek in the background.   Before becoming a National Monument in 1908 a dam and reservoir was being planned for the area.

William Kent was a prominent businessman, outdoorsman and community leader who later served in Congress, where he sponsored legislation that created the National Park Service in 1916.

Kent and his wife, Elizabeth, acquired this redwood filled canyon in 1905, in order to protect it as a natural area.   Two years later the North Coast Water Company tried to obtain title to the grove by eminent domain, hoping to build a dam and reservoir.   To stop this maneuver, the Kents offered to give the area to the Federal Government if the President would use the Antiquities Act to protect it as a national monument.   Mr. and Mrs. Kent proposed that the site be named in honor of their friend, naturalist and writer John Muir.

Gifford Pinchot, the first director of the U.S. Forest Service recommended Kent's proposal to President Roosevelt, who enthusiastically signed an executive order creating the national monument on January 9, 1908.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

If anybody knows the name of this plant, please let me know, but to me it sort of looks like an Oriental Lilly, or maybe even some sort of Fuschia.   But I would expect that it's native to the area, growing here close to Redwood Creek just outside the back-limits of the monument where less people travel.


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