In San Jose for the weekend visiting Cassie and Chris, we decided to run up the peninsula and cross the Golden Gate to see the Muir Woods. There are many hiking options here, ranging from paths that run all the way west to Stinson Beach and trails that run north and east to the top of Mt. Tamalpais. We chose a middle-ground loop of about 4 miles – we’d start at the main visitor center at the mouth of Redwood Canyon, following the creek at its bottom upstream for about a mile, then we’d cross the creek and climb 900′ out of the canyon over the next 1.3 miles before returning down the adjacent ridgeline to the visitor center via the Dipsea Trail. This area is exceedingly popular, and the park has established a parking-by-reservation system to control the crowds. We chose to purchase advance tickets on the shuttle that runs from a parking area in Sausalito, where we arrived about 9:00am – after a 30-minute bus ride, we found ourselves at the Redwood Creek trailhead, from which headed out northward shortly thereafter. The very gentle walk through the various redwood groves was peaceful and enjoyable, although, predictably for a Saturday morning, the path was quite crowded, especially in the initial half-mile – however, the further we went, the fewer people we saw. We soon came to Bridge 4 over the creek, our turnoff to start climbing west up the ridge on the Ben Johnson Trail, and we quickly gained elevation over the trees on the canyon floor. Steep sections were interspersed with flat ones for the next mile, which allowed us to catch our breath periodically and made for a very nice ascent. After something over a mile, we came to a junction with a cutoff trail that led steeply up to the ridgetop – drawn as a straight line on the map, the trail switched back several times before dumping us out on a dirt access road that runs along the spine of the ridge. Here, the signage for the Dipsea Trail was a bit confusing, but we were able to finally discern which path leading eastward was the trail and which was the road. The descent down the ridge was wonderful – the deep forest frequently opens up here, yielding views south and west over the hills to the ocean, although the abundant sunlight apparently fosters the growth of enormous patches of poison oak along the trail. Most of these are cut well back, but some closely encroach into the trailspace – Chris was very careful (okay, he was obsessively paranoid) in these sections. The Dipsea Trail parallels and makes multiple crossings of the access road, and more than once we found ourselves on the road instead of the trail. Eventually, we came to a well-signed turnoff that signaled the start of our descent from the ridge back to the creek – a short distance below the road, we found a small doe and her twin fawns grazing in the trailside foliage. Soon, we dropped sharply back to Redwood Creek, where we turned west and walked up the paved path for a quarter-mile back to the shuttle stop. Total distance was 4.4 miles with a little over 1,100′ of gain and loss – a very enjoyable morning. Next time here we’ll go for something longer, maybe out to the beach and back.