Muir Woods almost became a reservoir, and the man who saved it refused to let it carry his name
Some of the most famous redwoods on the planet were supposed to end up underwater. A water company had plans to log this canyon and dam its creek, and the only thing that stopped it was one Marin County landowner with a checkbook and a very stubborn streak.
Then he did something even rarer: he refused to put his own name on it. That’s how a forest just north of San Francisco ended up called Muir Woods, and why it’s worth seeing with fresh eyes this fall.
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The reservoir that almost happened
William Kent and his family bought this whole canyon of old-growth redwoods, 611 acres of it, for $45,000. In Kent’s words, it was “the lowest possible price… for preservation and not for exploitation.”
By 1907, a water company wanted Redwood Creek dammed for a reservoir, with the trees around it logged. Kent went straight to Gifford Pinchot, head of the newly formed Forest Service, who brought the idea of protecting the grove to President Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt signed the proclamation on January 9, 1908, using the Antiquities Act to make it a national monument. The name floated at first was the Kent Monument, but Kent insisted it honor his friend John Muir instead. Can you imagine a modern billionaire passing on that kind of naming rights?
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The grove where 46 nations stopped to remember FDR
Here’s the part that’s easy to walk right past. On May 19, 1945, more than 500 delegates from the conference that created the United Nations rode chartered buses out of San Francisco and gathered in Cathedral Grove.
They came to honor Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died just weeks earlier, on April 12. A Navy band played, South Africa’s prime minister Jan Smuts gave the main address, and a plaque was dedicated to the president they called the chief architect of the United Nations.
That plaque still sits in Cathedral Grove, and it opens with the line “Here in this grove of enduring redwoods, preserved for posterity.” Read it standing under those trunks and it lands a little differently than it would in a museum.
How to walk it (and how far to go)
The Main Trail follows Redwood Creek from the visitor center on a mix of boardwalk and packed dirt, crossing the creek on numbered bridges. Turn back at Bridge 2 and you’ve done a flat, half-mile loop that works for strollers and wheelchairs.
Push on to Bridge 4 and it’s a 2-mile loop that’s still mostly flat, past Cathedral Grove and the plaque. Most of the redwoods here are 500 to 800 years old, the tallest reaches 258 feet, and the oldest is at least 1,200 years old. Good luck getting a photo of the whole thing.
Want to lose the crowds? The Fern Creek to Camp Alice Eastwood loop is 3 miles round trip with about 340 feet of climbing, enough to warm your legs without wrecking your afternoon. Our pick: this is the best effort-to-reward ratio in the whole monument, because the boardwalk crowd thins out almost as soon as you leave the creek.
If you want a real workout, the trails keep climbing all the way up the slopes of Mount Tamalpais. We’ve rounded up our favorite routes in our guide to the best hikes in Muir Woods.
Getting in this fall
If you’re driving, you need a parking reservation from GoMuirWoods.com before you arrive. There’s no cell service at Muir Woods, so download it ahead of time. Hikers, bikers, and anyone dropped off by rideshare or taxi don’t need one.
We’ve done it both ways, and hiking in from one of the trailheads up on the Panoramic Highway is our favorite way to skip the parking scramble. You trade the reservation for extra miles, which is the better deal in a forest this good.
Entry is $15 for anyone 16 and older, and kids under 16 get in free. Since Muir Woods is a national park site, an America the Beautiful Pass covers the entrance fee too.
Timing tip: October 27 is a fee-free day for US citizens and residents, though parking and shuttle reservation fees still apply. The shuttle from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal also wraps up its season at the end of October, so after that it’s drive, hike, or bike in. Leave the dog at home, since pets aren’t allowed on the trails.
Trip tips: grab a rental car to get out here, lock in your hotel before the good rooms are gone, or skip both and book a camper van instead.
So, would you have put your name on it? Tell us which trail you’d tackle first, the easy creekside loop or the climb toward Mount Tam.
Rules and fees change, so always confirm current requirements before you go.
