One of my favorite places to go ride my mountain bike - and break my collarbone - is Bolinas Ridge Trail. This trail is great for walking/hiking, too - and if you go on a weekday, you'll likely have it all to yourself. This trail is great in the spring when the hills are all bright green and you can pretend you are in Ireland - but in the summer, when the hills are all gold and the breeze shakes the rattlesnake grass and the scent of the oaks is heavy in the air - you know you are in Northern California. There are cows - so get over your bovid-phobia and just walk by them. Unless you are a coyote, you don't have much to worry about: I once saw two large female cows chase off 2 coyotes from the baby cows (who were still 4x the size of the coyotes). They bellowed and chased the coyotes for about 20 minutes before the curs slinked off into the poison oak and grass). Great spot for sunsets, too - careful with your parking as people tend to go quite fast on this section of SFD and you don't want to lose a car door or side mirror. read more

The Bolinas Ridge Trail is stunning. It's a Ridge Trail, which by definition means it's up on a ridge and not deep in the belly of a forest. There isn't a lot of shade, which I love because it means I get to soak up some sunshine. Because it's up high, the views from this trail are stunning. There are rolling green hills in every direction, mountainsides spotted with cows, and all sorts of flora and fauna. I found California poppies and purple Irises, which made my day. There's a picnic table about 2 miles up, which is a great place to stop for lunch if it's not taken. And if it is? Sit on the grass! It's glorious. Dogs are welcome and so are mountain bikes. It's a moderate climb from bottom to top, so if you're whiny or can't stand sweat, go on a chilly, foggy day. Otherwise, slap on some sunblock, wear shorts, and bring lots of water!! It's worth it. read more

If you have followed my reviews, you may realized by now that I love hiking, especially in Marin. For an inexplicable reason, I never hiked on Bolinas Ridge. Big mistake because I did not realize how amazing it was until my friends and I decided to hike here. We had just visited Duxbury Reef (a great place to go tide pooling but this is another review for another day,) and did not know where to hike. Would we visit my old haunts near Alpine Lake or try a new hike filled with cows? One of my friends wearing a cow hat immediately suggested the hike filled with cows and since I wanted to find those hikes I had still not seen, I volunteered for this one. When we arrived, we saw the residents of the trail, the cows. Although I am an avid hiker, I am not a farm boy so my experience with cows on the trail is limited. My past experience with cows does include a school trip with one kid looking at a cow, waving his arms and shouting, "Pony!!!" He ran over to the cow and the cow gave him a look asking, "Dude, what's your problem?" My most recent experience with cows was when I visited Sunol Regional Wilderness and cows covered the trail. When we approached them, one looked at us and mooed really loudly. We did not want to learn what cows do when you walk through them so we went on a hill around the trail. (Quick tip: if you are ever hiking near cows and want an easy trail, take cow trails because cows are lazy and go up the easiest way.) The Bolinas Ridge hike though gave me a different perspective around cows. Once we saw the cows, no one screamed "Pony!" but people started walking up to them and taking pictures. After hesitating for a second, I joined and started snapping away. The cows stared at me with narrow eyes but I kept snapping away, ignoring them. Then along came my friend in the cow hat. She asked me to snap a photo of her with the cows with her thumbs up. I did so. We said goodbye to this bunch of cows and walked further down the trail to encounter....you guessed it, more cows. This time they were blocking the trail. Were we going to hike the long way around them? Not this time. One of the hikers with me crouched down (he's 6'5 so he still looked really tall,) and started running toward the cows. Instead of the cows charging him, he charged the cows and they slowly backed away. He then slipped through the grass toward one cow. She backed away slowly and then started running. It looked like these cows were not the owners of the trail. Overall, this hike was made fantastic by my great group of friends and the effects of the cows were reduced. Still, look out for cow pies because they are all over the trail and you do not want them on your shoes. read more

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The Bolinsa Ridge Trail has some amazing views of Olema Valley, most especially when the moon is full at nighttime, or when the sun is shining during the day. Not only does this trail have exceptional views, but it's also great for hiking or walking; regardless of what you seek when you set out for this place, if you come on a weekday, you'll most likely have the trail all to yourself. In the Spring the hills are bright green; you might think you were in Ireland. In Summer, the hills are golden, the breeze rustles the rattlesnake grass, air is heavy with the scent of oak trees; that's when you'll know you're in NorCal. Hiking this trail, you get a distinctive feeling of being surrounded by open space. If you press on past the first few miles, you'll find yourself surrounding by redwoods, and eventually chaparral. read more

This gentle, scenic trail is a good place for an easy, leisurely hike. A couple of things to bear in mind: (1) It is completely exposed. So you might want to bring a hat. (2) Watch out for ticks. We found over 30 of them on our dog! read more

This is part of the Point Reyes Seashore National Park, continuing into the Marin Municipal Water District. I am posting the trail separately, I have already reviewed the park but I think this trail deserves its own review. Rode the Bolinas Ridge Trail this weekend and I am angry with myself, how could I have missed this sweet ride for so long. This 22 mile out and back is just a blast. The first five miles or so is exposed ridgeline with amazing views and rolling but mostly up hill terrain. The second five miles is all redwood forests, it is like those Star Wars scenes with the annoying Ewoks, a full canopy covers the trail, Redwoods soar to either side of you, ferns line the trail, a deer ran along side of us for awhile on one down hill section. It was just amazing. Then you get to do it all again. We started from Sir Francis Drake, but you can also start from Fairfax-Bolinas Road. read more

We wanted to go hiking in Point Reyes but found out that virtually the entire Point Reyes National Seashore Park prohibits dogs on trails. Luckily, Bolinas Ridge Trail welcomes our furry little friends. The trail is essentially comprised of 20+ miles of trails running across, in the middle of, and over beautiful green hills of cow pasture. I kid you not. We must've come across thousands of cows (and cow pies) -- not mention signs warning of "aggressive cows." We literally had to step over one cow to keep going on the trail and I was about a foot away from several hundred others. Despite the cowpies along the trail and the smell of cows, Bolinas Ridge Trail is still beautiful. Being surrounded by endless hills of green grass and stunning views pretty much forced us to sing "THE HIIIIILLLS ARE ALLIIIIIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC" and twirl around like Julie Andrews for a few hours. We are sick puppies. read more

Really nice trail! It said it was 3.2 miles to Stinson beach from the top, when we got down to the bottom a sign said we had gone 3.9 my husband said he thinks we did 5 miles. With a toddler strapped on a backpack on his back we grabbed an Uber back to the car! You need reservations for parking in the lots in Muir Woods. Just FYI. We found a parking spot off the street. It was probably around 11am. Beautiful hike. And Stinson beach is beautiful! read more

Beware! Charging cows almost killed us! A friend and I took my 2 dogs for a hike there. We stuck to the trail. There are a LOT of cattle on this hike. One of them charged us, and I waved my arms in the air and yelled at it, stopping its charge. But another one charged, ignoring my yells, and it ran head-on at us... I threw the only thing in my hands... a 1L water bottle, hitting it on its massive shoulder. Surprised, it stopped 5 feet away from us. We escaped, but this trail is NOT recommended. Secondarily... my dogs never picked up more ticks from any trail in their lives (probably so many ticks because of the cattle). I literally removed about 100 ticks from them, and several from us. They live in the grass around and ON the trail. read more

One of the few places in/near Point Reyes National Park that allowed dogs on its hiking trails. I was hoping for a bit more dense forest and wilderness but the landscape was beautiful and the free roaming cows..... literally within feet of you while you are walking was a crazy but pleasant surprise......... II WILL NEVER GO BACK HOWEVER BECAUSE OF THE TICKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!! TICKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TICKS !!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never seen more ticks in my life. We soon realized that we were covered. My fiancee and I literally had at least 15 on each of us... most were still clinging to our clothes and were easily enough to pick off. This was after only a short time on the trail. Our dog was covered in nearly 50 ticks from head to toe. We spent hours picking them off of him. He did not like it !!!! We had planned to camp the night and spend the next day hiking as well..... We left as soon as we finished the hike back to our car. WE found a few clingers after we got home to on ourselves and are still finding them on our dog. BEWARE !!!!!! read more

Not a fan at all. I went on June 30th. Landscape was dry and exposed. Fire road trail was super dusty. There are so many other great bay area hikes with far superior views. And to top off a less than exciting hike were the massive amounts of ticks. I went with a group of 7 people and 3 dogs. There were ticks all over the dogs, and in our hair, under our clothes, EVERYWHERE! And this is just from strictly staying on the trail. Would never recommend this place, at least not in the summer when the ticks are in full force. Right when we thought we had plucked them all off we found more on the ride home, and now I have to flea/tick bomb my car. read more

Came on a foggy/windy day with a heavy jacket brought food but lost my appetite from all the cow patties ! no one was around it was peaceful no cows just rolling hills i guess winter has no ticks but keep in mind the patties where plenty! But i really enjoyed the views and the incline. read more

My friend and I have been trying out trails in the area to train for an upcoming trail marathon. We knew this had 20+ miles of trail, so decided to give it a shot for our long run. Maybe it's just me, but I had the hardest time finding this place! After circling past it multiple times, my 30 minute drive from the city had become a 2 hour drive. The beginning of the trail is in a farmer's field. The sign that says "Bolinas Ridge Trail" is inside the fence and barely visible. When we finally found the trail we were so excited...we were surrounded by cows and open space, and we couldn't wait to enter the redwood forest mentioned in all of the trail descriptions. The honeymoon ended there. We never even made it to that stinkin' Redwood Forest. After a 4 mile uphill climb on a hot, dusty fireroad, we had enough. We backtracked to continue our run elsewhere, sadly, never seeing the best part of the trail. This place is definitely more about the destination than the journey. The journey was pretty blah...maybe it's better in the spring when the grass is green. There are many other much more beautiful trails in the area, in my opinion. Seems very dog friendly, so that could be a plus for dog owners. read more

I would definitely not recommend this hike. My dog and I walked for about a mile until seeing a sign warning of aggressive cattle/calves. The sign also said that people with dogs should stay away! This was after I called the ranger station to make sure it was ok to walk by the cattle! read more