Dipsea and Steep Ravine

via the Old Mine Trail

Length 3.9 miles • Climbing 890 feet

California > San Francisco Bay Area > Muir Woods and Mt Tam

Steep Ravine

This exceptionally scenic loop is not in Muir Woods but in neighboring Mt. Tamalpais State Park. The loop descends the coastal bluffs with a few spectacular ocean views, then climbs through a lush old-growth redwood forest. This is a popular trail with locals, but few tourists make it out here.

The Steep Ravine Trail includes a 14-rung wooden ladder. The rungs can get very slippery when it's wet, which is essentially all the time, and if your shoes have completely flat soles (no heel) it may be very difficult to keep your feet on the rungs.

Steep Ravine

Hike description

Starting at the Pantoll ranger station, follow the paved service road west, and after just a few yards, turn onto the Old Mine Trail. The trail runs parallel to the road, and eventually re-joins it. Turn left onto the road and descend to the Dipsea Trail intersection.

This is where the good part of the hike starts. The Dipsea Trail offers great views, initially including the Bay Area, but mostly of the Pacific Ocean. On a summer day a huge fog bank might lie below the trail, so that you seem to be walking above the clouds. The trail runs alongside and on top of remnants of the Lone Tree Fire Road, which has recently been removed, greatly improving this stretch of trail.

The trail eventually descends into pleasant second-growth redwood forest and descends steeply, by way of a huge number of steps, into a canyon.

Click map to resize

At the Steep Ravine trail intersection, a trail to the left leads a half-mile to reach Highway One. At that point the trail is still 400 feet above sea level and there's no easy way to reach the ocean. There's also a scenic one-mile-long trail that descends to the resort town of Stinson Beach.

Turning right into Steep Ravine, the trail immediately enters an impressively lush redwood forest. With a few exceptions the trees aren't especially large, but the varied size of the redwoods, the presence of downed trees and the lack of stumps, and the relatively open feeling indicate that this is an old-growth redwood forest. Amid redwood sorrel and ferns, the trail winds through the narrow ravine by way of bridges and stone steps. It's such a scenic and interesting trail that you hardly notice that you're climbing 1000 feet. The trail is somewhat marred by the presence of Panoramic Highway a few hundred yards above the trail. Fortunately traffic along this section of the road is light, with only an occasional car to break the mood.

The Dipsea Trail soon after being narrowed from a fire road