Mount Tamalpais - or as it is know locally, Mount Tam - is 2571ft (about 800m) high and is located in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge. The east peak offers panoramic views of the ocean, cities and bay.
As we drove up the coast and up Mount Tam we passed through a variety of contrasting micro-climates: dry and sunny on the Peninsula, foggy on the Golden Gate Bridge, rainy halfway up Mount Tam and then hot and sunny again as we neared the top.
Our first stop was the Mountain Theatre. This is a large amphitheatre built for outdoor concerts. From the back row
seats you could look out across the tree tops to the mountain ranges in the East Bay.
Every good theatre needs a phone - even if it is in the middle of the bush.
("Hello. Ticketek? You did say the Mountain Theatre, 7:30 on the 4th, didn't you? Well there's nothing here but some stones and an angry skunk ...")
This photo was taken from the car park before we started the walk up Mount Tam. Now when people talk about a
blanket of fog or fog rolling in from the sea we'll know exactly what they mean.
This is a photo of San Rafael taken from the top of Mount Tam. San Rafael, a city north of San Francisco, is the
largest city in Marin County.
I think this photo shows the town of Sausalito or Tiburon. In the distance is the skyline of San Francisco.
After Mount Tam we headed out to the coast hoping to find a beach-side cafe where we could have lunch. This is the
Muir Beach Overlook. From the headland we could see the northern coastline, though some features were obscured by the
fog. Alongside the path from which this photo was taken, there were a number of concrete bunkers used during World
War II as lookouts for invading Japanese warships.
This is the northern coastline as viewed from Muir Beach Overlook.
The coastal area of California was once covered by redwoods, many of which were cut down during the 19th Century.
Muir Woods National Monument is one of the areas where you can see remaining old-growth coastal redwoods.
The tallest trees on Earth are all redwoods. coastal redwoods can grow from seed or sprout from the roots of a parent
tree. If you see a circle of trees like this, it's likely that the trees sprouted from a parent tree that disappeared
long ago.
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