Perfect day on Mt. Tam

The pictures do not do justice to the wide variety of scenery that twelve of us saw on our lovely hike on Mt. Tam on Saturday, May 23. And the temperature was cool and comfortable the whole day. Part of the reason for the cool temperature was the fog that shrouded the parts of the mountain that were exposed to the coast. This meant that the view of the ocean that we would have had along the coastal trail section of our hike was hidden in a fog bank. But the drifting fog painted the coastal scenery in its own beauty.

Much of the hike traversed well shaded winding paths through old wooded forests that were shielded from the fog. In these areas it almost felt like we were walking through a rain forest with old gnarled tree trunks covered in fuzzy moss, filtered sunlight, chirping birds, and many small creeks. When we got to Cataract Trail, we stopped for a pleasant lunch break, sitting on some fallen logs in the shaded forest.

(Click on photos for larger view)



We started out from Rock Spring trail head and did a loop hike down to Pantoll station, then along the Coastal Trail, and back around to Rock Spring via the Cataract Trail. It was approximately seven miles and we completed the hike in about four hours including a lunch break (from about 10 a.m to 2 p.m.).