Vignette > New Routes to Muir Woods

Cathedral Grove 1915 – click to enlarge

Originally, the only motor vehicle route to the Muir Woods reservation began in downtown Mill Valley. In 1915, an article in the Marin County Tocsin claimed that congestion at Throckmorton Avenue in Mill Valley “has virtually ‘bottled’ the reservation so far as motorists are concerned.”  To improve access, two new routes were established. One involved upgrading Homestead Boulevard.  Motorists on the county road from Sausalito would turn left just before arriving at the high school and follow the old wagon road that ended at the top of Throckmorton Ridge, close to where the Muir Woods Road went down to the reservation. The other new route required upgrading a privately owned wagon road on the Dias Ranch.  It provided a connection between the Bolinas Road in Tamalpais Valley and the Muir Woods Road. The owner of the Dias Ranch agreed to upgrade the road for public use. The result was less congestion in downtown Mill Valley. Today, most of Homestead Boulevard has disappeared in the overgrowth of brush and trees. Access to the Muir Woods Road is at Four Corners, where the roads from Tamalpais Valley (Dias ranch road is now Panoramic Hwy), from Mill Valley (Miller Ave. at the 2 AM Club) and to Stinson Beach intersect.