About the Forest

Muir Woods lies in the middle of the redwood's latitudinal range that spans from the California/Oregon border to Big Sur, just south of Monterey. The weather is mild throughout the year, but summer is the busiest time to visit Muir Woods. The incredible diversity of flora and fauna at Muir Woods can be daunting some times, elusive at other times. The redwoods themselves dominate the scene, but the humble Steller's jay, ladybugs, ancient horsetail ferns, and the banana slug hold their own beneath the canopy. Plants adapt to low light levels on the forest floor, while whole plant and animal communities bustle in the canopy above our heads.

Like many national monuments, it is operated by the National Park Service. It is also a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area which also includes sites in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin Counties such as Alcatraz, the Presidio, Land’s End, and Stinson Beach.

Before you visit

Plan Ahead

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Check the Weather

Muir Woods

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Facts about the Muir Woods

• People do not just visit Muir Woods. They come from around the globe to pay homage to nature in this cathedral of redwoods. The trees' ages range from 400 to 800 years, their height up to 250 feet.
• During the Gold Rush local forests were decimated to supply building materials for the burgeoning city of San Francisco. Marin County conservationist and politician William Kent bought the canyon in 1905 to save the redwoods. However, two years later a local water company sued Kent to condemn the canyon for a reservoir, when Kent asked President Roosevelt for help in declaring Muir Woods a national monument in 1908. At Kent’s special request, the forest was named after John Muir—the renowned conservationist who founded the Sierra Club.
• Muir Woods National Monument was established on January 9, 1908 when President Roosevelt signed legislation to protect an old-growth coast redwood forest from destruction.
• Northern California has a Mediterranean climate: wet winters and dry summers. A third of the total moisture available to local plants—including the towering redwoods—is produced by fog drip, a phenomenon in which fog droplets condense on the leaves of trees and coastal scrub.
• In the light gaps beneath the redwood trees are red alders, California big leaf maples, tanoaks, and Douglas fir. The forest floor is covered in redwood sorrel, ferns, fungi, duff, and debris. Several bridges cross Redwood Creek, which flows through the park year-round. Wildlife residents include the endangered coho salmon fingerlings, Pacific wren, woodpeckers, owls, deer, chipmunks, skunks, river otters, and squirrels to name a few.

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