The East Peak of Mount Tamalpais has always been Marin’s calling card. We look up to it throughout much of Marin and the North Bay Area. The Verna Dunshee Trail allows you to look down on those areas, rather than up.
The trail circles East Peak in an easy .7 miles and offers a commanding 360-degree, birds-eye view of Marin and the North Bay. As easy as the walk is, it is an inspirational must for any hiker. The land below rises, dips and stretches out invitingly. At the end of our trail, you can take the alluring short and more difficult climb to East Peak’s summit.
Pick a clear day for the Verna Dunshee circle hike, for then its views encompass Marin’s varied landscape from the San Francisco Bay and beyond to the Pacific Ocean.
• Hike summary: This paved, easy circle hike of only .7 miles is wheelchair accessible, offering unsurpassed views. It is a terrific place to bring visitors. Parking is easy, except on weekends and holidays when it becomes congested from late morning on. Day parking fees are $8 ($7 for seniors). I suggest that you bring a pen to fill in the parking form and the exact cash to slip into the envelope. Otherwise, you must download the state park payment app on your phone and use it to register and pay. Restrooms available. Dogs on leash allowed.
You can summit East Peak by taking an optional relatively steep trail of .3 miles with some rocky footing. It offers a 360-degree view from a slightly higher elevation than the Verna Dunshee Trail.
• Getting there: Take the Panoramic Highway, and at Pantoll, veer uphill to the right and continue right to the top of Mt. Tam where the road ends.
• The hike: We are going to circle East Peak counterclockwise, starting on the downward path to the far right of the restrooms.
East Peak has been a lure from early in Marin’s history when people strove to make the climb to its summit and record their names on the register maintained there. In late 1884, Eldridge Grade was completed, allowing horse-drawn wagons to reach the peak, but even then, the roundtrip took most of the day.
The Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway from Mill Valley to East Peak opened in 1896 and made Mt. Tam accessible to all. The mountain’s first hiking map appeared two years later. In 1908, the railway was extended to Muir Woods National Monument.
The railroad changed Marin forever. Before its demise in 1930, it acquainted some 1 million passengers with the delights of Mt. Tam and inspired some to have summer homes or reside permanently in Marin. The charms of the open mountain and generally undeveloped Marin inspired a great passion in the county’s residents to create and maintain open public lands. It is the widespread availability of Marin’s public open spaces and diverse topography that make it unique in the Bay Area.
Mount Tamalpais offers no shortage of beautiful views. (Photo by Jim Holden)
The Verna Dunshee Trail shows why Marin is so desirable. Almost immediately after your trailhead starts, you view the ocean, bay and San Francisco skyline. Looking down the mountain’s plunge, you view Sausalito, the Tiburon Peninsula and all before and beyond. The trail is generally surrounded by chaparral-dry scrub, which at the trail’s high elevation is often dominated by manzanita.
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You soon meet up with a sign for a 400-foot spur trail to a scenic overlook. Take it if you wish to explore more and can handle the moderate slope and rocky footing.
Continuing on the main trail, the view shifts to the blue of Bon Tempe Lake. Closer in, you will see the straight line of the dam for Lake Lagunitas and its small water surface. Nearby, you will see the bald head of Pilot Knob.
Looking farther out on a clear day, you can see Lagunitas Creek’s destination. The creek begins just below East Peak’s visitor center and fills the reservoirs of Lake Lagunitas, Bon Tempe, Alpine Lake (just below Bon Tempe) and Kent Lake before emptying into Tomales Bay. From there, the creek’s fresh water rides the tides into the Pacific Ocean, also visible from our trail.
Once you complete the circuit, you will come upon the Gravity Car Barn and the Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods Gravity Car, which are open and displayed only on weekends.
Shortly after, you will come to the plank walk, which begins the .3-mile path to the East Peak summit and lookout. If you are able to climb the moderately difficult grade with some tricky rocky footing along the way, you should do it — if only for the famous reason given for wanting to climb Everest: “Because it’s there!”
When you reach the top, you will be greeted by the lookout cabin, which is not accessible to the public. You may circle the peak, satisfied that you have explored it. On the way down, take in Marin’s magnificent landscape, and look forward to hiking more of its amazing terrain and trails.
See you on Monday in two weeks.
A longtime avid hiker and Marin resident, Jim Holden is the author of two nonfiction books: “It Happened in Marin” and “Adventure Lives, Daring Acts.” He can be reached at MarinhikingJim@gmail.com