Last minute trip to California - away from it all near San Jose??

Parent Cafe
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<p>Thanks for all the suggestions!</p>

<p>You are making me feel good about this last minute trip, which is not my style!</p>

<p>Eating oysters will be an adventure - this is really my first trip to Northern California (made a business trip there probably 15 years ago, but that doesn’t really count).</p>

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<p>Eureka is about 5 hours north of the city, it has this park
<a href=“Humboldt Redwoods SP”>Humboldt Redwoods SP;

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<p>Lots of nearby places to hike here: <a href=“http://www.openspace.org/”>http://www.openspace.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I love Midpeninsula Open Spaces, and in fact I’m about to ride my mountain bike into some Midpen open spaces when I finish typing this message. But Midpen is south of San Francisco, and Point Reyes is north of San Francisco. They’re 80 miles apart, and separated by a busy bridge.</p>

<p>For Point Reyes hiking, one can hike in Point Reyes National Seashore, which sounds flat but definitely is not, or go up to nearby Mount Tamalpais, honeycombed with hiking trails that offer spectacular views. </p>

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<p>^at Mt. Tam, the Steep Ravine and Dipsea trails down to the ocean are nice(/spectacular!!). Stinson Beach is chill, as they say.</p>

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<p>It’s me again. What route would you recommend from Mountain View to Point Reyes? Google Maps suggests going over the Golden Gate Bridge - is that a good idea? Also, what do you think is the latest we can arrive at Muir Woods on Thursday, July 3rd and not have to worry about finding a parking space (or find bumper to bumper traffic)?</p>

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<p>TripAdvisor is a good resource for your whole trip.
Leave MV at 6am go over the GGBridge and get to the MW parking lot as close to 8am as possible.
Closer to 10am means you may be shut out and have to stalk a spot.</p>

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<p>Google Maps is telling me that I-880, over in the East Bay, is the better route right now. I suggest using Waze to see which route has less traffic at the time you are leaving.</p>