Paradise Dr., Solano St. - Nov. 3, 2012

Walking Distance: 4.7 mi.
Walking Time: 2 hrs., 4 min. (4:10 - 6:14 p.m.)
Start and End Point: street parking, near 2355 Paradise Dr., Tiburon, CA

This late fall afternoon, I continued my walk along Paradise Drive in Tiburon, until evening shadows made it difficult to continue. This stretch of Paradise Drive, in fact most of Paradise Drive, on the north side of the Tiburon peninsula in Marin County, is shown as a dotted dark green line on the San Francisco Bay Trail map.

There were still a few carved pumpkins from Halloween on porches of houses I passed. The weather had gotten a bit cooler this week, and the easy days of summer, with evenings that stayed light until almost 9 p.m. were but a memory now.

However, what today's late-afternoon-into-early-evening walk lacked in trail amenities (such as setbacks) and daylight, it more than made up for in scenery, with views of Angel Island (including a clear view of the old red brick army hospital building up on the hill across the strait), Keil Cove, Golden Gate Bridge, Sutro Tower and the skyline of San Francisco, the Port of Oakland, Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, San Quentin Prison, and boats in the Bay: ferry boats, sailboats and various motorized ships.

I walked north on Paradise Drive, and passed the County of Marin Tiburon Uplands Nature Preserve trailhead (a small sign and a set of stairs disappeared into the wooded hillside). A minute later I walked past the Romberg Tiburon Center gate, and and soon thereafter, the Bay Conference Center.


I took lots of pictures of the winding, narrow, tree-lined stretches of Paradise Drive. I stopped occasionally to shoot pictures of items perched precariously on a narrow strip of earth adjacent to the asphalt. This time of year there were plenty of berries, acorns, chestnuts, new tiny green shoots starting to push up from the ground, and the occasional banana slug.

I would have liked to have walked a bit more, but cars and bicyclists have a difficult enough time seeing pedestrians in the daytime on roads like this. Best not to alarm them unexpectedly with your presence at dusk.

I turned around at 3333 Paradise Dr. Toward the end of my walk back, about a half hour before sunset, I enjoyed glimpses of small, pretty coves and sailboats, and golden cliffs, visible between dark, silhouetted trees.

On the way back, I took a slight detour and walked downhill Mar Centro/to Mar East street sign, to a cluster of mailboxes, where I'd stopped on a previous walk. Then I headed back up to Paradise Dr., past my car, to the intersection with Solano Street, where I turned around to walk back to my car again. But, not before spending several minutes admiring the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, with the sun setting behind it.

Wildlife Sightings:
3 butterflies/moths; 2 little brown jobs (LBJs); 1 banana slug