Muir Woods National Monument

If you’re visiting the San Francisco Bay Area for any amount of days, I would say that Muir Woods National Monument belongs on your list of must-see locations. We rented a car to get there, but the park is just a hop and a skip over the Golden Gate Bridge – 16 miles from downtown San Francisco. Muir Woods would make a fun, but tough, cycling destination from the city. The main draw to Muir is its 240 acres of old growth Coast Redwood trees. They’re just massive and beautiful, dwarfing everything in sight. We could have spent an entire day at Muir, but we wanted to save several hours for the Marin Headlands. Luckily, our visit happened to correspond with the beginning of a ranger tour. The best introduction to any national park is a great ranger-led hike.