The Marin Headlands is one of the crown jewels of the Golden Gate National Parks—very few other metropolitan areas have such vast wilderness right in their own backyard. A short trip across the Golden Gate Bridge offers boundless opportunities to enjoy this expansive land of natural beauty and cultural history. The Headlands consist of several individual sites linked by an extensive network of trails.

VISIT THE MARIN HEADLANDS: TIPS AND HIGHLIGHTS

• Bring your own snacks; there are no food vendors in the Headlands.
• The far end of Conzelman Road closes every night around sunset and opens again at 7:30 am.
• Accessible restroom facilities are available at the Fort Cronkhite parking lot by Rodeo Beach, and the visitor center in Rodeo Valley.
• Don’t plan on swimming (the ocean water is cold and dangerous).

• Take a drive along cliff-hugging Conzelman Road from the northern foot of the Golden Gate Bridge and out to Point Bonita. This 5-mile road offers breathtaking views of San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean.
• Picnic at Battery Wallace, near the Point Bonita trailhead. This is one of the parks’ most scenic picnic spots, complete with tables and grills and overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge (no water on site).
• Pay a visit to rescued wildlife (and volunteers) at the Marine Mammal Center.
• Survey the majesty of the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay’s entrance from the beach at Kirby Cove.
• Tour the workings of Nike Missile Site SF-88-L, with its six Hercules missiles, radar equipment, launch rails, and other features from the Cold War era.
• See, touch, and hear what’s happening at the Headlands Center for the Arts.
• Each year, more than 20,000 raptors fly over the Headlands during the five-month autumn migration season. Volunteers with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory have counted as many as 2,800 raptors on a peak day.

Seafloor Rocks
The sea cliffs and road cuts of the Marin Headlands have some of the finest exposures of pillow basalt and radiolarian chert to be found anywhere. Millions of years ago, these rocks formed around mid-ocean ridges several thousand miles from the West Coast at the bottom of the sea.

The black pillow basalt was created when volcanic vents spewed lava onto the seafloor.

The red-brown radiolarian chert formed as layer upon sedimentary layer of skeletal radiolarian remains (microscopic protozoans) collected on the seafloor.

As the seafloor moves slowly east (at about the rate a fingernail grows), it slides under the North American continent and leaves behind scrapings of radiolarian chert and pillow basalt.