Customer Reviews

Moon 101 Great Hikes of the San Francisco Bay Area (Moon Outdoors)

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San Francisco is the only major urban area that I consider an outdoor (hiking/camping) vacation destination. Almost all cities have nice parks and short walks in areas where urban and wild (or at least undeveloped) landscapes interface. But the Bay Area has a lot of such lands and an abundance of trails on them. Even East Bay communities, with their thick urban development and nightly traffic snarls, have a parks and open space district that boasts nearly 100,000 square acres and contains over 1,100 miles of trail. The latter figure rivals what one can find in many national forests. But of course the Bay Area also includes towering redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the spectacular Point Reyes National Seashore.

So where should you turn to explore all this wild territory that surrounds one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world? There are many good guidebooks to the region, but this new edition of Ann Marie Brown's '101 Hikes' is an excellent starting point. The older edition was the first hiking guide I purchased to the Bay Area. It gave me many superb outings and the new edition is even better.

Like many other hiking guides from Moon Guidebooks, this one is long on route description, natural and local history, and includes numerous black and white photos from the author so readers can get a glimpse of the local scenery. Unlike other Moon Guides, this volume also has detailed sketch maps of the trails. The book covers wildlands from the Sonoma Coast to Santa Cruz and extends eastward as far as Napa Valley and Livermore. The four chapters cover each geographical region and the hikes are fairly evenly distributed. Most of the trips Brown offers in this book are half to full day excursions. Double digit mileage is common and hikes from five to ten miles are the norm. The author does, however, include a number of "options" for those who would like a shorter, or longer, hike.

On the whole, this is an excellent book. I can never decide if I like the Santa Cruz Mountains or Marin County more, but I have walked many of the selections Brown describes in these areas and think they are, without exception, the premier hikes in these parks. The waterfall loop in Big Basin Redwoods, the excursion through Henry Cowell, and the trip to Arch Rock at Point Reyes are all personal favorites that I have done many times. Buy this book and start building some memories of the (really) wild side within the greater Bay Area.

Nature photography is a hobby of mine, so I bought this book as a guide to find local parks. So far, it's been a big help. This book is very well done and thoughtfully organized.

The book is divided into 4 regions of the bay area with maps at the beginning of each section, outlining the locations of each park. Each location has a basic trail map, a 1-2 page write-up, directions, and usually a tip to visit another nearby attraction.

A couple drawbacks: 1) The black and white photographs are poor newsprint quality. Color photographs (and more than one photo for each hike) would be a huge help. 2) Usually within the write-up for each hike, the author recommends the optimum time of the season to visit the park - it would be nice if that tip was included somewhere in the subheader (with the trail distance and difficulty level) so you could quickly scan through the hikes.

Overall, this is a great resource and highly recommended to anybody in the Bay Area looking to get outdoors.

The San Francisco Bay Area has some of the most surreal landscapes in the world stretching across mountains, plains, lakes, waterfalls, redwood forests, and the Pacific Ocean all hikers; both apprentices and experts would enjoy. The list of hiking trails covers those in the Peninsula and Marin County by the Pacific Ocean and slightly inland, the Sonoma wine County, and the East Bay. These trails are rated in terms of their difficulty; easy and moderate; which usually mean flat trails with little elevation changes, as well as strenous and "butt-kicker" which mean they have significant elevation changes with steep slopes. The description of each trail includes the map; though not a detailed one, but still useful, what it is famous for; family-friendliness, waterfalls, spring flowers, bird-watching, wild life, and gorgeous vistas; some of which extend all the way to Sierra Nevada. It also includes a general direction to the trail from major highways., I would personally recommend Mission Peak Regional Preserve in Fremont, East Bay; Purisima Creek Redwood Open Space Reserve at the Peninsula, and Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County. Wilder Ranch State Park, few miles north of Santa Cruz, is appropriate for families with little children considering its relatively short trail, about 2 miles, and quite a number of stunning views of the Pacific coast lines.

Get this book for your hiking guide and enjoy the glory of God through His creations.

Great way to plan your next hike. Helps you get out and explore the bay area while hiking rather than just going to your "usual" spots. A lot of these places you can get to using public trans so be sure to make use of that!

Pay attention here. This is a really good guide to some fine outings in the Bay Area for those of you who want to walk and enjoy the experience.

I've used this guide for about 10 hikes so far and have yet to be disappointed by any of them. The descriptions are very accurate, so that you know what you're going to get on the hike, and many trails whose routes would otherwise be confusing are accurately described in the guide. It definitely brings you on some great trails.

There are "options" listed at the end of each trail descriptions where there are suggestions for shortening or lengthening. This makes it a great guide for a variety of levels, from myself, a more active looking for high-mileage hikes, as well as for when I want to find accessible and easy 1-2 hour hikes to take friends or family on when they come to visit.