Sir Francis Drake Boulevard drops out of the San Geronimo Valley into a shady canyon of redwoods along Lagunitas Creek. That's Samuel P. Taylor State Park, a redwood park about 30 minutes west of San Rafael on the road to the Point Reyes coast.

Know before you go

  • Where: about 15 miles, or 30 minutes, west of San Rafael on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. For camping or picnicking, use the 'Camp Taylor' entrance. To hike from Devil's Gulch, continue about a mile west and park in the large pull-out across the road.
  • Creek closure: creek access is closed from Dec. 1 through June 15 each year.
  • Fees: pay at the kiosk with a card or cash. State Parks says exact change helps. The park accepts several state passes, including the California Explorer and Golden Poppy annual passes and the State Parks Library Pass.

What's here

State Parks says the 2,882-acre park ranges from shady canyon groves to oak grasslands to the top of Barnabe Peak, which it calls one of the best viewpoints in Marin County. Visitors can camp among redwoods, bike along the creek, hike easy and moderate trails, picnic and watch salmon spawn. Wikipedia puts the park's old-growth forest at about 600 acres, some of it visible along the Pioneer Tree Trail.

The story of Samuel Taylor

Samuel Penfield Taylor found gold during the Gold Rush and used some of the money to buy land along Lagunitas Creek. In 1856 he built the Pioneer Paper Mill there, the first paper mill on the Pacific Coast. When the North Pacific Coast Railroad came through in the 1870s, linking Cazadero to a ferry pier in Sausalito, Taylor built Camp Taylor beside the tracks. The resort offered a hotel, tent camping, swimming, boating, fishing and a dance pavilion, and it drew visitors from San Francisco.

Taylor died in 1886, and his family lost the mill and the resort in the Panic of 1893. The mill burned in 1916. In 1945 the state took the land for unpaid taxes, and it became the park. During California's budget crisis it was one of many state parks at risk of closing. In 2011 the National Park Service agreed to take over security and operations to help keep it open.