The Ben Johnson Trail

Loop hike with the Dipsea Trail

Length 5.2 miles • Climbing 1100 feet

California > San Francisco Bay Area > Muir Woods National Monument

Starting at the Muir Woods overflow parking lot, this loop ascends unrelentingly along a grassy ridge and then descends through old-growth redwood uplands to the bottom of Redwood Canyon. To top off the hike, the route follows the Main Trail along the canyon floor past the park's best redwoods. This is a nice alternate way to see Muir Woods, with more variety than the usual Main Trail loop.

Hike description

From the overflow parking lot, the Dipsea Trail descends slightly to cross Redwood Creek. After heavy winter rains the bridge across Redwood Creek may be out, but it's possible to detour around it on Deer Park Fire Road. The trail then begins a steep climb up a wooded hillside with a series of steps. It soon emerges into grasslands with views of Mount Tamalpais and, occasionally, the ocean. The scenery on this stretch of trail doesn't compare to what you get further up the mountain or even on Sun Trail, which is on the other side of Muir Woods.

The trail parallels Deer Park Fire Road and crosses it several times. For the most part, the road and the trail offer the same scenery, but just inside the Muir Woods boundary, the fire road passes through a nice redwood grove that the trail misses.

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After 1.7 miles of climbing you'll come to an intersection with the Ben Johnson Trail. Most hikers take this shortcut, which switchbacks steeply down a hillside. Hikers who want to see a nice scenic view and a few additional redwoods can continue up the Dipsea Trail as shown on the map. This longer route climbs an additional 0.3 miles before arriving at the TCC Trail. From this point it's worthwhile to climb just a few hundred yards more on the Dipsea Trail to arrive at an excellent viewpoint that overlooks the ocean. Retrace your steps back to the TCC Trail.

The TCC and Stapleveldt trails are included here because there's a stretch of old-growth redwoods on the Stapleveldt Trail. The TCC Trail is not particularly scenic, while the Stapleveldt Trail descends into a more interesting redwood-filled ravine. Initially the trees in the ravine are small and the woods are somewhat dismal-looking, but there's a big improvement when the trail crosses into Muir Woods.

The Ben Johnson trail descends steeply through old-growth redwood uplands. The trail is cut into a hillside, with views of redwoods below in a few spots and some nice redwoods along the side of the trail. There's a spotty groundcover of ferns. Due to the lower soil moisture here, the hillside has smaller redwoods and is generally less scenic than the valley floor, although the redwoods get larger as the trail descends. Despite the fact that it's not as impressive as the Main Trail, this is still one of the best woodland trails in the Muir Woods area. It's the only trail in or near Muir Woods where you can see old-growth redwood uplands, which throughout the redwood's range is much more common than the big-tree lowlands.

The Ben Johnson Trail