82. Bolinas Ridge

Length:	10.2 miles round trip
Hiking time:	5 hours
High point:	1,800 feet
Total elevation gain:	700 feet
Difficulty:	easy to moderate
Season:	year-round
Water:	bring your own
Maps:	USGS 7.5' San Geronimo, USGS 7.5' Inverness
Information:	Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Bolinas Ridge Trail provides commanding views of bald hills, wooded ridges, and expansive Tomales Bay as it escorts you past large coast live oak and eventually through Douglas fir.

From Olema on Highway 1, turn east on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, go 1.1 mile, then park off the road at the signed trailhead.

At the outset, pick up the dirt road, which promptly ascends to an old corral next to a patch of cypress trees at 0.1 mile. Then travel past treeless rolling hills covered with pasture grasses, yellow-flowered mustard, plantain, and low-growing filaree.

Reach the first crest at 0.6 mile. A lone boulder outcrop and a single coast live oak impressively frame a northwesterly view of Tomales Bay, and Point Reyes Peninsula Barnabe Peak stands guard to the east. Turn right and head up the bare hillside at a signed trail junction at 1.3 miles.

A ridgetop field rewards you 0.2 mile farther with a splendid westward view of lush, dark-forested Inverness Ridge, which hides the Pacific Ocean. The dirt road now hugs a double-barbed wire fence, affording intermittent glimpses of the slender Olema Valley below Inverness Ridge. At 2.4 miles you walk past a long stretch of Douglas fir on the left, fronted by coyote brush. Pass a rush-lined pond on the right at 3.6 miles, then climb gently past another pond 0.2 mile farther. Reach the open ridge top at 4.1 miles, where you'll enjoy great northward views of rolling hillsides and Tomales Bay. The trail gains its highest point when you pass a row of five huge eucalyptus trees at 4.8 miles and capture another view of Tomales Bay.

An excellent vista point awaits at 5.1 miles. At the Shafter Trail junction, climb any knoll on the right for the spectacular views of Inverness Ridge and the Pacific Ocean.