King Mountain Open Space & Dawn Falls 2016-03-27

Our first hike in Marin County was at King Mountain Open Space with an extended trip to Dawn Falls, technically situated in the neighboring Baltimore Canyon Open Space. The trail head is located in Willow Ave, off Magnolia Ave in Larkspur. The easiest way to drive there is to set "Citron Fire Rd" as the destination in Google map. While parking is free, do pay attention to the posted restrictions.

We started our hike by Citron Fire Rd which will cross a gate welcoming hikers to King Mountain Open Space. The fire road continues ahead as it gradually gains in elevation. Predominantly dry, there were several muddy patches in the fire road over the next 3/4 of a mile. And as it gains in elevation, the San Pablo bay, Richmond bridge and the hills beyond will open up nicely in the east.

Where Citron Fire Rd intersects King Mountain Loop trail, you have the option of going left or right. We turned right and did the loop in a counter clockwise direction. Shy of 2 miles, the loop is a narrow single track dirt trail that goes around King Mountain. For those interested in just doing the loop, the hike from Willow Ave trail head will be about 3.5 miles overall.

The loop trail winds its way around the mountain through heavy wooded forests for a while before coming upon a flight of steps. The stairway zig-zags and gains more than 100 feet in a short order before crossing Ridgecrest Rd. In his inimitable way, Apollo would always look out for my wife if she fell behind in stretches especially those that involved some climbing!

From here, the trail descends a little. In this stretch, the iconic Mt. Tamalpais will open up on the right. It was a fine spring day, but there were some high clouds obscuring the peak for a while before moving away completely.

About a mile into the King Mountain Loop trail, you will come upon the Ladybug trail junction. We took the Ladybug trail which zig-zags and gradually descends over the next 3/4 of a mile to reach Larkspur Creek. A nice wooden bridge gets you across the creek to Dawn Falls trail.

The falls is on the right in the opposite direction to the flow of the water in the creek. Dawn falls trail is perhaps a bit wider than the previous two single track trails, but goes through couple of narrow patches alright. Essentially hugging the creek, the Dawn Falls trail also had few tricky wet patches that we had to negotiate. 

The falls is about a mile's hike by Dawn Falls trail. You will come across a huge boulder. The trail climbs steeply for a short stretch from where the boulder is to reach the top of the falls in a short while. While the flow was not copious, the 30 feet cascade did sport a respectable showing today.

We turned around at this point, making our way back by Dawn Falls trail to the foot over bridge and Ladybug trail junction. The return by Ladybug trail involved regaining the elevation we had given up on the way down. 

At the King Mtn Loop trail junction, we turned right to complete the loop, shy of a mile from this point. The characteristics of the loop remains the same for this stretch as well - single track dirt trail through heavy woods.  However, just before the loop trail reaches Citron Fire Rd, the bay along with Corte Madera Creek, Richmond bridge and more opens up in a real picturesque fashion on the right. 

We wrapped up our hike by walking down Citron Fire Rd to the trail head. Nearly 6.8 miles with about 1100 feet gain overall, this will be a perfect hike for warmer days given how well shaded most of the route is. 

More pictures from our hike.
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