Oh, California - everyone from Tupac to Joni Mitchell to led Zepplin to Katy Perry have written songs about you, and it's not just because of the cities - more often it's about the beauty of The Golden State. How gorgeous it is, and how lucky I was to go on a hike on Mt. Tamalpais, or Mt. Tam if you want to be casual and cool about it.
Kelly was easy to convince (months in advance) to do some hiking while I was in the Bay Area, so off to Marin County we went!
Mt. Tam is 2,574 ft, put we started our hike at the Pantoll Ranger station around 1,478 feet and went down to Stinson Beach and back up again. We took our sweet, sweet time to enjoy the changing flora - from rolling hills inundated with yellow poppies, to the open ocean, to Red Woods forests and canopies. We enjoyed the great outdoors for about 5-6 hours and a total of about 7.5-8 miles. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I'd ever done because the scenery changed so much so quickly! And you know I love beautiful views and peaceful nature.
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| Our path is outlined in purple. We used the Matt Davis trail to head to Stinson Beach, on the way back we followed the Dipsea Trail to the Steep Ravine. |
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| Start at Pantoll Ranger Station. |
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| Off to a great start with a view of the Pacific Ocean from the Matt Davis trailhead. |
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| Magical trees... |
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| ...which lead to majestic hills! |
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| I was high on the trails consistent tree canopy to hill change-up. So storybook-like. |
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| The Poppy is the state flower. |
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| Not as comfortable as it looks! That was so thorny grass! |
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| Stunning! |
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| Rolling hills.... |
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| Our first peak of Stinson Beach! |
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| You can see San Francisco and the Golden Gate from here! (Photo by Kelly!) |
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| Hikin' buds. |
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| Kelly's a cutie. |
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| Aforementioned canopy to hill experience. |
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| I sure do love photographing dead animals for some reason. |
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| Growing up in Russia I loved, loved climbing trees. |
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| Sharks! |
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| Stinson Beach. |
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| Heading back on the Dipsea Trail, the beginning was immediately glorious! |
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| Dipsea Trail |
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| Steep Ravine Trail |
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| Bridges and Red Woods, what more could a gal want? |
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| Red Woods |
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