We’ve got your next hike covered: Roy’s Redwoods Preserve in Woodacre recently reopened after extensive renovations to the tune of $3.7 million.
At this beautiful site about an hour north of San Francisco, you can ramble across 293 forested acres overlooking San Geronimo Valley—through old-growth forest, past seasonal wildflower patches and even into a bit of Star Wars history.
Restoration work had been underway at the preserve for several years and fully closed the park for about six months. The purpose? To give visitors a safe multi-use trail system, reduce erosion through the floodplain and create sustainable roads for year-round access. Thousands of native plants were planted, and 1,900 feet of wheelchair accessible boardwalk is now in place. An inclusive parking spot was added, and on a micro level, a porta-pottie got relocated (yay!) and fences and signs got fixed or installed.
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Two trails, Roy’s Redwood Loop Trail and the Boardwalk Trail, take you through old-growth forest. If you’re looking for an amazing view, the Dickson Ridge Fire Road offers vistas of Mount Tamalpais and Mount Wittenberg. And finally, if you need even more, you can connect to another preserve, the Maurice Thorner Memorial Preserve, by hiking on the Thorner Ridge Trail.
Birders, you’ll likely see pileated woodpeckers and back-throated gray warblers during the day, and in the evening, you can listen for barn owls and great-horned owls. In spring, the wildflower bloom includes Pacific hound’s tongue (a pretty purple flower) and milkmaids (a frothy white and pink flower). But watch your step: kingsnakes, racers, ring-necked snakes and rattlesnakes (plus ticks) also like communing with the birds and flowers.
Bring your leashed dog on the trails, and if they’re under voice command, you can take them off leash (with leash at the ready) on the fire roads.
While part of the preserve feels very remote, some of it is right along a golf course and behind a restaurant. But persevere to see those insane wild views we love about California with fog, moss, gorgeous valleys in the distance and bridges over brooks.
Now, if natural beauty isn’t enough, would you like to know mid-’80s Star Wars spin-off Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure was filmed here? Just imagine you and those ambulatory teddy bears hiking the trails together and pausing for hugs. (Although, as a Reddit thread alerts us, Ewoks may look cute but they are badass enough to eat Stormtroopers.)
Roy’s Redwoods is named for two brothers from Vermont, James and Thomas Roy, according to the Marin Journal. They received 420 acres in 1877 from a man they’d loaned $20,000.
The preserve is an hour from San Francisco by car and is part of the Marin County Parks system. Some of the trees here are close to 300 years old. An Instagram post announcing the reopening shows sunlight wafting through the tall trees, split logs laid across stumps to form a walkway and the wide, sturdy accessible boardwalk trail. The Parks Conservancy and the One Tamalpais partnership helped with the renovation.