Muir Woods National Monument

There are many places in north California with more impressive redwood trees, but Muir Woods is very popular (receiving nearly one million visitors each year) on account of its proximity to San Francisco, just 15 miles south via the Golden Gate Bridge. Named after the famous Scottish naturalist, conservationist and explorer John Muir, who visited here several times from 1903 onwards, the woods form a small part of the forested slopes of Mt Tamalpais, near the southern end of the Marin Peninsula. The east edge of this region is quite developed, along busy US 101 (the Redwood Highway) through such towns as Sausalito, Corte Madera and San Rafael.