California · Mount Tam and Point Reyes

Redwoods, coast and a short ride that feels expensive.

Open this ride in the planner →

Why this ride

Redwoods, coast and a short ride that feels expensive. A 140 km loop that starts and ends near Kentfield, about 2 h 42 of riding. On the way it passes Stinson Beach, Point Reyes Station and Tomales Bay. The climb of the day is Mount Tamalpais. It is a high-mountain day.

Roadbook

1. Mount Tamalpais high

   Mount Tamalpais is the hill every San Francisco rider eventually points a front wheel at. It stands just across the Golden Gate in Marin County, with the east peak at roughly 780 metres, which sounds modest until you remember that it rises almost straight out of the bay, so the whole thing reads as a proper mountain. The Miwok people saw a sleeping woman in its outline, and from certain angles in the city she still lies there, flat on her back against the sky. Kentfield, Mill Valley and Larkspur lie at its foot, and any of them will sell you petrol and coffee before you climb.

   The road up is the Panoramic Highway and then Ridgecrest Boulevard, a narrow, twisty strip that clings to the flank with wide sightlines on one side and redwood shade on the other. The bends are tight but steady, the surface is variable, with patches and the odd frost heave, and traffic is a mix of cyclists, tourists in rental cars and locals who know every apex. Go early on a weekday if you can, because weekend mornings fill with lycra and Sunday drivers. The famous moving feature is the fog. A bank of it often pours through the Golden Gate in summer and sits below you in the valleys, and riding above it with the sun on your visor and the city's towers poking through the white is one of the best things Marin can offer.

   The mountain has a quiet place in outdoor history. Mountain biking in its modern form was shaped on these fire roads in the 1970s, when local kids used old single-speed bikes to bomb down trails and timed their runs. Below the summit, Muir Woods holds a grove of old coast redwoods that survived because the valley was too steep to log profitably, and they are well worth a detour if you can bear the crowds. On the summit ridge, an old fire lookout and a trail around the top let you stretch before the view, which on a clear day reaches the Farallon Islands and the Sierra.

   Dress for a ten-degree swing in temperature between the valley floor and the ridge, and watch for deer in the dusk.

2. Stinson Beach swim

   Stinson Beach is where the Pacific finally gets its way with Marin. After the long curves of Highway 1 down from the ridge, the road drops to sea level and a pale crescent of sand runs out for about three miles, with a spit of dunes at one end and the steep green slope of the mountain at the other. The village behind it is tiny, a scatter of beach houses, a few cafes, a grocery and a bookshop, and it feels both sleepy and expensive, as seaside places near big cities often do.

   The riding to get here is the real attraction. Highway 1 from the Mount Tam side snakes down in a long series of tight, blind bends, with a drop on the seaward side, and the fog can swallow it without warning. The surface is patchy, grit and sand collect in the corners, and slow RVs hold up the line, so settle into a rhythm rather than trying to push. North of the beach the road runs beside Bolinas Lagoon, a tidal bay where the San Andreas Fault passes through and where herons and egrets nest in the trees on a nearby ranch each spring. Bolinas, at the far end, is famous for its locals, who are said to take down road signs to discourage visitors, so you may need to read the map instead.

   The swim is a different matter from what the name suggests. The Pacific here is cold all year, typically somewhere in the low teens Celsius, and the surf can be strong, with rip currents that lifeguards warn about. These waters are also part of the stretch of California coast where great white sharks feed, and while encounters are rare, many people simply wade and paddle. On a warm afternoon, though, the sand is soft and the dunes pleasant for lying in the sun with an ice cream.

   Parking at the beach costs money and fills early on summer weekends. Fuel is not reliably available in the village, so top up in Mill Valley, about nine kilometres back over the hill. Bring layers, since a warm afternoon turns cold the minute the fog arrives.

3. Point Reyes Station food

   Point Reyes Station is a single street of low wooden buildings in a green valley north of San Francisco, and it has more good food per metre than most cities. It sits on the Pacific side of Marin County, at the southern end of Tomales Bay, beside Highway 1, with dairy farms and cattle ranches stretching away toward the hills. The town has a bakery that draws queues on weekend mornings, a famous creamery that makes cheese from local milk, an old-fashioned feed store and a bookshop, and the pace is slow and friendly.

   The land beneath it is anything but calm. The San Andreas Fault runs right through, along the long, straight trough of Tomales Bay, and in the 1906 earthquake the land on the western side moved about six metres north in a few seconds. A short walk at the Earthquake Trail near the park headquarters shows a fence that was pulled apart by the shift. The Point Reyes National Seashore, a wild peninsula of grassland, cliffs and beaches, lies to the west, and it holds a lighthouse built in 1870 on a rocky cliff, where whales can be seen from December to April. Tule elk graze on the grassy headland at Tomales Point, and in autumn the bulls bellow.

   For riders, the roads here are among the best in the Bay Area. Highway 1 twists north from Mount Tamalpais through Stinson Beach and along the edge of Bolinas Lagoon, and the back roads over the hills, with redwood groves, fog and tight bends, are a favourite for local riders. Surfaces vary, with some patches that are bumpy or damp, and the fog can roll in without warning, dropping the temperature by ten degrees. Weekends bring heavy traffic from the city, so a weekday is better. Oysters from the farms along Tomales Bay are a local speciality, and several places serve them fresh.

   The village has a small fuel station, but check hours, and the nearest larger supply is back in the towns toward San Rafael. Late summer and autumn often bring the clearest weather, while spring is green and flower-filled. Plan on a slow lunch.

4. Tomales Bay photo

   Tomales Bay is a long, thin finger of water that points north-west from Point Reyes, and it lies exactly on the San Andreas Fault. The Pacific plate on the western side is moving north, slowly, against the North American plate on the east, and the straight, narrow shape of the bay is the scar left by the rift. In 1906, the fault slipped here with such violence that fences and roads were displaced by several metres, and you can still see where in places near Point Reyes Station.

   The water is calm and green, with oyster farms along the eastern shore, tide flats and small boats pulled up on the mud. Inverness, a village of about thirteen hundred people on the western side, is a cluster of wooden houses and a few cafes, while Point Reyes National Seashore stretches beyond it. On the road along the eastern shore, State Route 1, villages like Marshall have fish restaurants and oyster stands where you can eat fresh shellfish at a picnic table with a view.

   The ride here is excellent. Highway 1 follows the bay in a series of gentle curves, with the water on one side and rolling hills on the other, and the surface is generally good, though some stretches are rough and narrow. Fog is common, especially in summer, when it rolls in from the Pacific in the afternoon and can drop the temperature by ten degrees in minutes. Bring a layer even on a warm day, and be careful on damp corners. On weekends, cyclists and tourists crowd the road, so go on a weekday if you can.

   Fuel is scarce on this stretch. Petaluma, about twenty-four kilometres east, is the nearest large town, and the villages around the bay have limited services, so fill up before you come. Food is easier: the oyster shacks and bakeries along the shore are a Bay Area institution.

   Early morning, when the water is flat and pink and the first fishermen are out, is the best time for a photograph. Elk, herons and pelicans may all make an appearance, and in winter the sky is full of migrating birds.

5. Back to Mount Tamalpais finish

   Back at Mount Tamalpais. That is the ride.

Where this sits

Rides near here