I am visiting San Francisco early November and am taking the Red Eye flight back east. The day of my flight we have plans to start the day at Muir Woods and will have a car. Any tips for Muir Woods I should know ahead of time? After our visit to the park, we will have until 8:00 pm that evening to "kill". We would have already done sightseeing in the city and are looking for suggestions 'outside' of the city for the day. My thought was areas north of Muir Woods since we will already be in that direction, but I'm open to other ideas in the direction of the airport, since we are flying out that night. We will have a car.

thanks in advance!

Michelle

Drive up Mt. Tam or a quick trip to Point Reyes NP.

You could explore Point Reyes seashore.

Or you could go the opposite direction. Instead of Muir Woods, you could head south and visit Big Basin, then the San Mateo coast. Big Basin is a larger park w/ less visitors/crowds.

Either option would work.

Was posting the same time . . .

South you could include Stanford and Palo Alto, Half Moon Bay, Big Basin (as suggested). Or you could continue north on up to Sonoma and/or (my choice) Healdsburg. We left the city for a trip up to Healdsburg last weekend around 10:30 and were home by 5 (and that included stopping at a bunch of open studios on the "Art Trails tour and for lunch in Sebastopol).

Muir Woods is pretty spectacular and worth the visit.

You have time to make it to Napa if you have not visited wineries.

Tiburon or Sausalito are great stops for meals and a walk around the shops.

I would not go as far as Point Reyes. Muir Woods will take a good part of the morning, if not all of it (and get there before 10 for decent weekday parking, earlier for weekend parking). Muir Beach and Stinson Beach, and the drive from one to the other give a good sense of the coast. At the end of the Bolinas Lagoon there is a road that goes up to Mt. Tam. No need to go all the way to Mt. Tam, there are fantastic views (with parking) from the turn off to Mt. Tam and going back down toward Muir Woods. That will take all day. We just did it Thursday with a picnic at Muir Beach and did not even get to Stinson Beach. Traffic was really bad going over to the East Bay (coming off the mountain around 4 p.m.) and might be just as bad going to SF.