Читать книгу Afoot and Afield: San Francisco Bay Area. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн

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A junction with the Ocean View Trail, right, serves as a meeting place for ranger-led walks; times for these are posted near the entrance station. Continuing straight, you enter a realm dominated by giants. Dense stands of redwoods create a shady environment suited to only certain other types of plants, and the thick carpet of needles and twigs deposited each winter, called duff, makes it hard for seeds to sprout.

When you reach Bridge 2, where a vending machine has maps for sale, look across the creek: there stands the monument’s tallest tree — 253 feet — and, at 13 feet in diameter, its most stout. Stay on the east side of the creek. Beyond the bridge, the canyon holding Redwood Creek narrows, with steep hillsides rising both left and right.

Passing Bridge 3, left, you enter Cathedral Grove, where the path divides around this fantastic stand of trees. You come to the Fern Creek Trail, where you turn right, leave the paved path, and get on a dirt trail. With Fern Creek in a narrow canyon on your left, you enter Mt. Tamalpais State Park. A wooden bridge takes you across Fern Creek, and then the trail bends right, passing a set of steps leading down to the creek. The next bridge takes you back across Fern Creek, and a third, parallel to the creek, crosses a gully which holds a seasonal stream.