The end of the year holidays will likely drive multiple generations of family and friends to your home and once the holiday main events have faded, you’ll be looking to somehow satisfy and entertain your waning list of guests. The biggest difficulty is not devising things to do that will be of interest to some, but rather the challenge is in finding something that will be of interest to possibly four generations of guests simultaneously. If you’re within striking distance of the San Francisco Bay area, then the answer resides just over the Golden Gate Bridge, in Muir Woods National Monument.
Muir Woods is home to the Giant Sequoia Redwood trees which rise to a height approaching four hundred feet. While the Muir Woods National Monument is surrounded by rugged terrain, most of the park area where the tall trees reside is in the flat valley of the park. Accordingly, there is easy access to the park with a mile-long flat and paved trail through the center of the forest. This makes it highly accommodating to both the very young who might be pushed in strollers, to the very old, who might need wheelchair accommodation. You’ll also find plenty of benches along the way so that all can take the time to relax and experience the beauty at any pace of interest.
The path will offer everyone a chance to see something of interest. This time of the year is when the early morning temperatures will freeze the dew on the trees’ leaves and pepper them with sparkling frost that twinkles in the morning sunlight before the temperatures and sunshine rise by mid-morning. That moisture from the melting frost, coupled with the leaves piling up below, create a wonderful environment for numerous mushroom varieties to bloom. The winter months are also a great time to spot ladybugs at Muir Woods. There’s no need for good eyesight either, as they cluster in the hundreds and thousands on rocks and stumps. The creeks, such as Fern Creek and Redwood Creek, are a good place to look for salmon as the pooling areas within them offer good spawning sites for the salmon and the calmer water will afford good viewing opportunities for visitors. All of the Giant Sequoia Redwood trees will display knots or burls on the trunk or branches, where the trees will sprout and reproduce. They also produce small cones that offer an added form of reproduction. The cones’ seeds are sown as the cones get scattered, and with that action, comes the next generation of Giant Sequoia Redwood trees, ensuring there will be trees for every generation of your family tree which will wish to visit the Muir Woods National Monument.
