• Tips for Visitors
• Nature

Road Closures and Construction

Due to a massive road improvement project, Upper Conzelman Road in the Marin Headlands is closed to all traffic, bikes, and pedestrians through October 2010. East Road is also closed. Other roads will experience traffic delays of up to 30 minutes and may be closed completely to bikers. There will be no public access to Hawk Hill until the road re-opens in the fall.

- Road delays and closures
- Bike delays and closures
- Trail delays and closures
- Transit delays and closures
- Destinations & parking information

Visit the Project Headlands web site for more information about the Marin Headlands and Fort Baker Transportation Infrastructure and Management Plan which presents proposed improvements to 11 miles of historic roads in the Marin Headlands and Fort Baker. 

Marin Headlands 

There's only one place on the Pacific coast where you can be at eye level with the soaring tower of a world-famous bridge: the Marin Headlands. Discover San Francisco Bay's narrow entrance channel by taking 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 climbs high above the level of the bridge towers and offers breathtaking views of San Francisco and the ocean. Vista points along Conzelman Road include Battery Spencer at the crest of the first hill; several road turnouts; and Hawk Hill (Hill 129), 1.8 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge.  

Where the road narrows to one lane and plunges dramatically down toward the coastline, park and walk up the fire road to the top of Hawk Hill. On an autumn day, you may see raptors (birds of prey) soaring overhead. Unlike other birds, raptors have talons for grasping prey, hooked beaks for tearing flesh, and tremendous eyesight. Nineteen different raptor species can be seen above the narrow Marin peninsula during their autumn journey south down the coastal flyway. Each year, more than 20,000 raptors fly over the Headlands during the five-month migration season. Volunteers with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory have counted as many as 2,800 raptors on a peak day.

While in the Marin Headlands you can also:

• Picnic at Battery Wallace, near the Point Bonita trailhead—one of the parks' most scenic picnic spots, complete with tables and grills and overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge (no water on site).
• Explore Rodeo Beach at Fort Cronkhite, where you'll find green and red pebbles of pillow basalts and chert (see below).
• 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 (and touch and hear) what's happening at the Headlands Center for the Arts.
• Hike around the perimeter of Rodeo Lagoon to spy on resident waterfowl, or keep an eye out for prowling bobcats while walking in Gerbode Valley.

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; upon contact with the cold water, the lava solidified into pillow-shaped deposits. 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.