Plan Like A Pro Before You Visit Coastal Marin
There are so many places to explore in coastal Marin! Learn more about our public lands and how you can responsibly visit and safely recreate in our coastal national, state, or county parks, water district, and open spaces. Check out the links below to find more information on things to do, how to get there, current conditions and closures, and other details on the places you will want to visit. Click on the blue hyperlinks to visit external pages.
CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS
CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS Mount Tamalpais: Just north of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Tamalpais State Park rises majestically from the heart of Marin County. Its deep canyons and sweeping hillsides are cloaked with cool redwood forests, oak woodlands, open grasslands, and sturdy chaparral.
Samuel P. Taylor: Most of the park’s campsites lie beneath majestic redwoods, with a few (at Devil's Gulch and Madrone) under oaks and bay laurel at the bottom of Barnabe Peak. Newly built cabins are also available. Reservations are highly recommended for regular campsites every day during peak season and on weekends year-round. Reservations are required for group sites and cabins.
Tomales Bay: This day-use park features multiple gently sloping, surf-free beaches, protected from winds by Inverness Ridge, the backbone of the Point Reyes Peninsula. Tomales Bay State Park is composed of 3 distinct use areas: Heart's Desire, Shell Beach, and Millerton Point. In addition to hiking, the park is a popular place for picnicking, swimming, clamming and boating.
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Golden Gate Recreation Area (GGNRA): Plan on spending at least a few hours in the park, exploring the scenic drives or particular points of interest. If time permits, you could take a longer hike, recreate in one of our picturesque sites, or attend a ranger-led program to learn more about these special places.
Stinson Beach: Stinson’s white sand and oceanfront make it one of the best swimming beaches in GGNRA and Northern California. People continue to visit Stinson Beach to escape from the frantic pace of everyday life to enjoy Volleyball, hiking, picnicking, fishing, or surfing.
Point Reyes National Seashore: From thunderous ocean waves crashing against rocky headlands, expansive sand beaches to open grasslands, and forested ridges, Point Reyes offers over 1,500 species of plants and animals to discover. Home to several cultures over thousands of years, the Seashore preserves a tapestry of stories and interactions of people.
MARIN WATER DISTRICT
MARIN WATER Planning a trip to the watershed? Whether you are heading to Leo T. Cronin Fish Viewing, Mount Tamalpais Watershed, or the Nicasio Reservoir, plan your trip in advance and check out this Double-sided Mt. Tamalpais Watershed Visitor Map created by Marin Water. The Marin Water Recreation Page has information on where to hike, parking fees, dogs, biking, and other helpful information while you enjoy the beautiful watershed.
MARIN COUNTY PARKS & OPEN SPACE
MARIN COUNTY PARKS & OPEN SPACE PRESERVES
Agate Beach County Park/ Duxbury Reef: Agate Beach offers miles of breathtaking shoreline below towering cliffs.
Bolinas Lagoon Preserve: Bolinas Lagoon is one of the few remaining unspoiled estuaries on the west coast.
Miller Boat Launch: A popular 4-acre boat launch and fishing spot on the east side of Tomales Bay.
White House Pool: Enjoy a peaceful, 22-acre wildlife haven next to Lagunitas Creek.
TOMALES BAY
GREATER FARALLONES NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY
Tomales Bay, which was designated in 2002 as a wetland international importance under the Ramsar Convention and is included in the Golden Gate Biosphere, part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Tomales Bay supports a diversity of habitats, including seagrass beds—primarily eelgrass, intertidal sand and mud flats, and salt and freshwater marshes.
POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE
While Tomales Bay is the most popular area for Kayaking, there are many places to visit including; Drakes Estero and Estero de Limantour, Marine Protected Areas, and the Pacific Ocean. Click the link to learn about launch sites, boating responsibilities, closures, and rentals.
Before kayaking, canoeing, boating etc. always check the Weather and Marine Forecasts. Visit the Safety While Boating page for information on preparing for and remaining safe while boating in the Point Reyes area.
FIND PARKS AND TRANSIT
Looking for places to visit and how to get there? There are some really amazing online mapping tools and databases that provide information on protected and public lands and how to get there.
PARKINFO.ORG
Use ParkInfo to find great parks near you, anywhere in California! ParkInfo was created by GreenInfo Network. Park data from CPAD 2019b, created with ESRI GIS software. Other data from OpenStreetMap.
CALANDS.ORG
The California Protected Areas Database (CPAD) is a GIS dataset depicting lands that are owned in fee and protected for open space purposes by over 1,000 public agencies or non-profit organizations. CPAD depicts the wide diversity of parks and open spaces in California, ranging from our largest National Forests and Parks to neighborhood pocket parks.
The California Conservation Easement Database (CCED) is a GIS database defining easements and deed-based restrictions on private land. These restrictions limit land uses to those compatible with maintaining it as open space. Lands under easement may be actively farmed, grazed, forested, or held as nature reserves. Easements are typically held on private lands with no public access.
TRANSIT TO TRAILS
In 2009, GreenInfo Network in partnership with Bay Nature developed an online resource to map public transit to trail networks. It’s a great starting resource to find public transit near public parks. The map is out of date, so you will need to look up the transit authority to verify if the routes are still in service.
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