Activities & Programs

Things To Do

Muir Woods contains 6 miles of trails. There is a 1/2 hour loop, a 1 hour loop, and a 1 1/2 hour loop as well as longer hikes on trails that extend into surrounding parks. All of these walks afford views of thousands of old-growth coast redwoods, the tallest living things in the world. Picnicking, pets, bicycles, smoking, and camping are not permitted within the park.

May 19 is a fee free day in honor of peace and quiet in a natural setting during the Muir Woods Centennial Year.

Sound Engineer Dan Dugan will have listening stations set up in various park settings.  And Gina Farr's 6 minute sound-view, entitled :  "IN THE COMPANY OF GIANTS:  Among the Ancient Trees of Muir Woods on the Wild Pacific Coast" will debut.

Peace Visions have been written by 5th graders from Martin Luther King, Jr  School of Berkeley. These students come from 29 countries and expressed their hopes for the world after a visit to the Redwood Creek Watershed.  Visitors will be invited to pick one and take that youth's vision into the woods.

All are invited to walk into the forest at 4 pm to witness the dedication of Cathedral Grove as a permanent place of peace and quiet. Poet Laureate, Bill Mentzer, will read a special poem for the day.  Zen Center Abbot Steve Stuckey and Executive Director of the Save-the-Redwoods League Ruskin Hartley will speak about the significance of this commitment to the natural soundscape, the visitor experience and the long legacy of associating peace in a natural setting, particularly the redwood forest.  

This is the first such dedication in a national park.  Redwood forests are noted for the intrinsic quietness and the proclamation protecting Muir Woods as a national monument 100 years ago specifically notes its primeval qualities.  Soundscape studies and social science researchers have confirmed the value visitors place on the natural soundscape as well as their willingness to respect zones of natural quiet.

Other efforts to protect the natural soundscape of this redwood forest include quieting activities in the park's Jr. Ranger book, quiet cash registers in the Visitor Center, electric chainsaws and efforts by businesses such as Sea Plane Tours to "work with FAA through the Air Tour Management Plan to minimize aircraft noise over Muir Woods."  

Muir Woods has a longstanding relationship to the United Nations.  UN Delegates met here in 1945 at a memorial gathering to honor a main architect of world peace in the closing days of WWII, the late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  UN Secretary General Dag Hammersjold had a special relationship to Muir Woods and redwoods and a grove was named in his honor after his untimely death, the dedication happening in Muir Woods while the permanent grove was purchased further north.  And, every Secretary General has visited including Ban Ki-moon in August 2007.  World Environment Day, a UN program, was also celebrated at Muir Woods in June 2005.  

The timeless choice of Cathedral Grove as a placed dedicated permanently to peace and quiet was eloquently expressed back in 1945. The National Park Service press release issued on that occasion says, "The site in the monument chosen for the meeting is aptly named - Cathedral Grove, it was pointed out.  In this quiet grove is the impressiveness of a temple.  Massive fluted columns, the trunks of the great coast redwoods, support a ceiling of green and the sunlight filters in as through a church window. It is a place designed by nature to engender a feeling of peace and reverence..."