Mill Valley to Stinson Beach, CA

Another trip to CA, another weekend exploring. This time I found an AirBnB in Mill Valley, just north of the Marin headlands, with access to the Miwok and connecting trails running along the coast through Muir and Stinson Beaches. My first morning I woke up early and hoofed it to a spot where I could expect a sunrise, only to find that my memory card was “full,” which didn’t seem right since there weren’t any photos on it. Turned out it was because I’ve been deleting photos but not the metadata. So unfortunately I had to return to home base to sort that out, and pick up a new memory card for the just-in-case. All of which meant I was significantly delayed getting onto the trails.

Because of the late start, my plans for the day got scrambled. I wanted a sunset along the coast, and I thought that if I got to a good spot I could just camp out and get an Uber back. Well, where I found myself near sunset was Stinson Beach. Turns out there aren’t Ubers in Stinson Beach. And while there is a bus, I realized I’d forgotten my bus pass. I’d brought my headlamp in case I found myself out after dark, so I figured there wasn’t any problem walking back. But if I went back via the trails I’d miss a coastal sunset. So I decided to walk back along Rt. 1. This made complete sense right up until sundown, when the narrow switchbacks with cliff face to either side and no shoulder to walk on became straight up life-threateningly dangerous. I was about to panic when a truck slowed and stopped, then backed up, and the driver leaned out to ask if I needed a lift. Yes, I needed a lift. But I want to be clear: even if he had not stopped, it would have been worth the risk to capture these images.

I apologize that there are so many photos here of this one tree. I have not yet decided which one I like the best. They all feel so different and equally magical that I just can’t choose. So here they all are. Site note: I did almost no editing. The last two are taken several hours after the first three. White balance is “As Shot” and I did some slight cropping, maybe just a touch of clarity and vibrance on one of them, and that’s it.