Stinson Beach Dipsea- Matt Davis Trail Loop

This weekend, I wanted to go on a day adventure. Although we (somewhat) frequently hike in the Santa Cruz Mountains, we decided to head north of the city to hike through Mount Tamalpais (Tam) State Park. There’s a loop we’ve done in the past that I really like but it had been awhile.

SMS wanted to grab breakfast in the city so we went to the Arsicault bakery, Civic Center. Not the best part of town, but it was safe enough. I got a Palmier and Americano, SMS got a slice of quiche and Earl Gray latte. After a quick breakfast, we drove through the city, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and towards Stinson Beach. Stinson Beach is a cute little town that has one of the trail heads and plenty of free parking at the beach.

We headed up the Dipsea Trail. Inside Trail was hosting multi-distance races. They’re only able to host 500 runners so while we saw a lot, there was never a crush of people coming down the trail. We hiked up Dipsea up to the flat area near Veteran Bench and Lone Tree (landmarks on Google map). The views of the city in the distance were exceptional. I didn’t realize that we would cross over enough of the mountain to see SF. Looking back at the map, I realized what I quasi-meant to do was take Steep Ravine trail from Dipsea but we stayed on Dipsea far beyond that turnoff. The Dipsea-Steep Ravine-Matt Davis trail loop is much more popular and written about, but this loop was nice too. Also, 9 miles instead of 6.5.

Then, we took Old Mine Trail to the Pantoll campground. We crossed the Panoramic Highway and found the Matt Davis trailhead. I love this trail. From the top, we walked across the yellow-grassed hills with amazing views of the ocean. Then we entered the forest with lots of ferns. The trail runs alongside a creek for awhile so the running water sounds are very peaceful.

Towards the end, I was a bit tired but nothing unmanageable. The hike was so fun! We headed back to beach parking, used the restroom, and sat at the picnic table for a few minutes.

Then we hopped in the car and drove to Mill Valley. We walked around a little bit before going to Avatars Punjabi Burritos. The town is so cute! Regarding the food,both us shared the SMS’ opinion that “it was good, but expected it to be better.” We’ve had really good Indian food and really good burritos, so we were excited for the combo. It was fine, but nothing to write home about. Only in a blog post.

Now we’re back home. I’m in my pajamas super early and SMS is working on a structural analysis project. Again, this was a day adventure, not crazy Saturday night shenanigans, lol.