Cataract Creek Trail at Mount Tamalpais, California

Located in Northern California, Mount Tamalpais is the highest peak in the Marine County and is one of the most popular hiking and camping site for the residents of San Francisco. The mountain is full of hikes and trails, and one of the lesser known, but super fun trail is called Cataract Creek Trail. The trail takes you to the Alpine lake and later to the popular East Summit.

A waterfall at the Cataract Creek Trail

Waterfalls are very common as you walk in to the forest

History of Mount Tam

Locally also known as Mount Tam, the mountain has a rich history and cultural significance from the time the original inhabitants of the area of San Francisco, Coast Miwok people, inhabited here.

The mountain was revered by the local population and it was believed that an evil force lived on its summit, due to which it was a forbidden land. This was done to prevent settlements on the mountain and to keep it as it was. However, this didn't prevent the Europeans from coming here.

Lovely trail...

Once the Europeans came, the population of Coast Miwok people started to quickly decline due to the diseases introduced by the foreigners. With time they were also converted into Christianity by various missions, one of the most well known being Mission Dolores. A smallpox epidemic in 1837 decimated most of their population, apart from other diseases bought in by the Spanish and the Russians.

My visit to Mount Tam

I knew nothing about such an interesting history of the place when I went on an impromptu hiking trip with my friend over a weekend. He picked me early in the morning from home and we quickly drove through San Francisco and onto the iconic highway CA 1.

The Golden Gate as we started the drive from San Francisco

The winding roads which are a favourite with the local cyclists

Even as we were going up on the meandering roads this highway is famous for, I could see many cyclists zooming past us at scary speeds. It might sound odd, but I had never seen mountain biking before this and was both scared and impressed by it. It was much later that I learnt that this very land is actually the birthplace of mountain biking.

And here are the fast ones on two wheels!

We drove deeper into the woods and soon reached the parking spot for our car. It certainly looked that we wild get a ticket for parking as there was no car at all there, but Abhi was confident as he had come here earlier. And I guess he knew parking signs I could not even see!

The hike was a bit odd as it started off with a steep ascent which went on for quite sometime. I usually don't get tired so easily, but despite the cold weather, I was soon panting and wondering where this hike was going. It was all very pretty with water stream on our left and a few waterfalls as well. Thankfully we found flatter ground soon and even met a few more hikers who were happily enjoying their meals on the wooden benches.

I miss views like these...

Now there are numerous trails within the area though it's impossible to do them all. Abhi was keen that I see the lake the region is famous for and we walked towards Alpine lake. It was nice and muddy and looked dangerous. We were unsure about swimming so didn't get into water at all.

Of course hiking to the summit (west peak) was on our agenda, though the very top of the hill now had a big dome which houses a weather station. However, what's more popular is the East peak which is famous for great views of San Francisco as well as the ocean.

That's Abhinav :)

Family eating lunch in the woods

Well, you can try crossing that :)

To reach East Summit

There are multiple routes through which you can reach the summit, if that's what is the objective of the trip. The easiest is to drive almost all the way to the top of east peak where an old railway station used to be. It's car park and the actually summit is a short hike from there.

Or, the other more adventurous trail is the one which we took - the Cataract Creek Trail. Take the Fairfax-Bolinas road from Fairfax, and you will be rewarded with a lovely winding road over the next 8km. Parking is available by the side of the road though it's not really marked very well.

From the top...

By the way, the one thing that I didn't mention is that it's a dog friendly trail which means you are welcome to get your dogs along with you. Here's an excellent guide to other dog friendly trails in Bay area.

Here is a map for better reference:





While you are in California, hiking isn't complete unless you go hiking in Yosemite National Park. I actually went twice there, in winter and spring, and it was special each time.

Of course, Yosemite is one of the many beautiful National Parks in the US. About 900 km away in the state of Utah is another very popular park called Arches National Park, which was the other park I really wanted to visit but unfortunately couldn't. It's reserved for my next trip now :)

Here's a travel guide with more details for a visit there: Arches National Park Hikes and Travel Guide.