While John Muir was not responsible for the creation of the national park system, Muir was one of the greatest advocates of preserving wilderness areas and played a large role in setting aside many national park sites. This national park site, named after Muir, is located just north of San Francisco and preserves a large grove of coastal redwood trees.

Because the park is so popular, visitors must make a reservation in order to visit. While this requires some planning, it also keeps the park from becoming too crowded, allowing visitors to enjoy the park rather than being distracted from the beautiful scenery. After checking in with park staff, visitors are free to walk the trails that meander through the stands of redwood trees. The trails are a mixture of boardwalks and well-maintained dirt trails in the park. The accessible Ben Johnson Trail, the main trail, runs along either side of a small valley, with redwoods filling the valley and the hills on either side. It’s hard to keep your eyes on the trail, as you keep wanting to look upward at the towering redwoods. Despite the number of people here, we were able to find moments of solitude away from crowds, drinking in the stillness of the forest, the bubbling creek running through the valley, and the height and breadth of the coastal redwoods. It’s hard to do these trees justice–it’s nearly impossible to capture the trees in a picture because of their size. Standing next to them leaves one in awe.

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The Ben Johnson Trail allows great views of the trees and wanders through several stands of redwoods in close proximity to one another. At the end of the first, main section of the trail, one can choose to continue on or to return to the visitor center via the Hillside Trail, which ascends the hill from the valley floor and allows one to view some of the redwoods from a different, higher perspective. The Hillside Trail was a bit more secluded, and we enjoyed seeing the redwoods from a higher elevation, though they still soared above us.

After hiking about three miles, we returned to the visitor center, exceedingly happy with our time there. Muir Woods was a wonderful place. Despite a fair number of people, we were able to experience solitude for much of our visit. We were able to walk in stillness and softness, our eyes continually drawn upward by the beautiful coastal redwoods.