Check off two of your family’s 2018 goals—getting the kids outside and adding more reading to their line-up—by taking them to explore the StoryWalk in the Marin Headlands.

Each year, more than 18 million visitors come to the Bay Area’s national parks to share special moments at rocky beaches, wooded areas, and historical sites. These exceptional destinations give daters a chance to unplug and connect with the environment outside the city.

Wildlife cameras installed on Mount Tamalpais’ watershed and surroundings in late 2014 have turned up rare glimpses of the creatures that inhabit Marin’s wildlands.

The busiest unit in our national park system isn't a park at all. In fact, plenty of visitors never notice that they're in it — not when they're half-lost in the redwoods of Marin County's Muir Woods, not when they're deep into a conversation about robots at San Francisco's Ft. Mason, not when they're roaming the vast beach flats of Ft. Funston, near the San Mateo County line.

Peering through binoculars, a flock of volunteer raptor watchers perched high in the Marin Headlands reacts excitedly to a pair of peregrine falcons swooping through the Golden Gate.