With a million visitors per year, Muir Woods is the world’s most-visited redwood park. Since it’s just a 30-minute drive from San Francisco, visitors to the city can experience a little of California’s unique natural beauty and be back in time for lunch.

The downside of this popularity is the crowds: with the long walk to the entrance and crowds of tourists jamming the wide boardwalk, Muir Woods can feel a little like a theme park. Even the trails that climb the steep hills around the Bohemian Grove Trail are surprisingly busy.

The tallest trees in the park are only about 250 feet high, about two-thirds the height of the tallest North Coast redwoods. The redwood grove has an unusually dark appearance and lacks the strikingly lush look of the best old-growth redwood groves.

Mount Tamalpais State Park surrounds Muir Woods and is extremely popular with locals. It offers superb mountain and ocean views, and even has some old-growth redwoods, although it’s mostly covered with very small second-growth redwoods, coastal scrub, and rolling alpine meadows.

Old-growth redwood hikes in Muir Woods

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★★

The Bohemian Grove Trail

Length 2.0 mi · Climbing 120 ft

The main attraction of Muir Woods, this heavily-used trail follows a stream through a canyon lined with medium-sized redwoods.

★★★

Sun Trail

Length 4.7 mi · Climbing 930 ft

A scenic loop that climbs a steep grassy hillside high above Muir Woods, then descends through a narrow, redwood-filled side canyon to the main old-growth grove. The best of the loops that climb the hills around Muir Woods.

★★

The Ben Johnson Trail

Length 5.2 mi · Climbing 1100 ft

Climbs a long, grass-covered ridge, then descends through old-growth redwood uplands to the Bohemian Grove Trail.

Old-growth redwood hikes in Mount Tamalpais State Park

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★★★

Willow Camp and Steep Ravine

Length 8.5 mi · Climbing 2080 ft

A challenging hike that starts on top of grass-covered coastal hills with dramatic ocean views, then descends to Stinson Beach, and finally climbs through a redwood-filled canyon.

★★★

Dipsea and Steep Ravine

Length 3.9 mi · Climbing 890 ft

An enjoyable hike with a little of everything — great ocean views, lush coastal woodland, and a cool, damp canyon lined with old-growth redwoods. The redwoods are smaller and fewer in number than Muir Woods, but overall the hike is much less touristy.

★★

Colier Spring

Length 1.4 mi · Climbing 410 ft

High on the north side of Mount Tamalpais, Colier Spring sustains a tiny, little-known old-growth redwood grove.

Stinson Beach from the Matt Davis Trail, Mount Tamalpais State Park