Barbier
Park & China Camp State Park,
City of San Rafael & California State Parks,
Marin County
In brief:
3.7 mile out and back hike departs from the edge of a San Rafael residential neighborhood
and climbs to the top of San Pedro Mountain.
Getting there:
From US 101 in Marin County, exit Central San Rafael. Drive east on 2nd Street,
past the busy supermarket district (2nd merges into 3rd, but you'll hardly notice),
and continue on San Pedro Road as 3rd Street ends and San Pedro Road picks up
(again, you won't notice this). After you've traveled about 3 miles from 101,
look for a sign for Knight Road. Turn left onto Knight Road, drive about 0.4 mile,
then turn left onto Rollingwood. Drive about 0.3 mile, then turn left onto Beechwood
Court. The trail begins at the end of Beechwood, less than 0.1 mile from Rollingwood.
Trailhead details:
Lots of street parking in a residential neighborhood. Please respect neighbors
and keep your noise to a minimal level. No entrance or parking fees, maps, restrooms,
pay phone, drinking water, or designated handicapped parking (and trails are not
suitable to wheelchairs). Golden Gate Transit buses 31 and 32 stop at San Pedro
and Knight, less than 1 mile from the trailhead.
Gas, food, and lodging:
Pay phones, restaurants, gas, and stores back in central San Rafael. No camping
in Barbier Park, but China Camp has a nice walk-in campground.
Distance, category, and difficulty:
This 3.7 mile out and back hike is moderately easy, with about 1100
feet in elevation change. Trailhead elevation is around 85 feet. The hike's high
point is about 1045 feet, and almost 1000 feet are gained in 1.5 miles. The trails
are somewhat steep.
Rules:
No rules are posted at the trailhead or on the trails, but most China Camp trails
are multi-use (you are not likely to see horses on this hike). A few (not in this
part of the park) trails are designated hiking-only. Dogs are not permitted on
every trail described below; they are permitted in the city park but not in the
state park. For day use, the China Camp is open from 8 a.m. to sunset. Barbier
Park is open from sunrise to sunset.
The Official Story:
CSP's
China Camp page.
China Camp park information 415-456-0766.
Map Options:
• Use AAA's San Francisco Bay Region map to get there.
• Trails of Northeast Marin County is the essential map for this hike
(available from Pease Press).
• CSP's
China Camp map and brochure (pdf)http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/466/files/ChinaCampBrochure.pdf
• Don and Kay Martin's Hiking Marin has a useful map of the preserve
and the surrounding area (order
this book from Amazon.com).
Barbier
Park/China Camp State Park in a nutshell -- a printable, text-only
guide to the featured hike.
• View photos from this
hike
As I drove slowly down Beechwood Court sussing out the
parking situation, 
I
sensed that this was a neighborhood unaccustomed to visitors seeking access to
China Camp State Park, Barbier Park, and San Pedro Mountain. Walking down the
street to the trail, dogs frantically barked at me, and I could imagine invisible
fingers drawing back curtains, and many a wary eye following my progress. Neighborhood
access is never my favorite way to reach public hiking trails, but sometimes there
are no established trailheads from which you can stage a hike. San Rafael's Barbier
Park is such a place. Perched on the south slope of San Pedro Mountain, the park
abuts China Camp State Park and San Pedro Mountain Open Space Preserve, but offers
no facilities or established trailheads, and visitors must enter via neighborhood
access locations where parking can be difficult. Although there are plenty of
trailheads on San Pedro's more remote north slope, it is a bit nonsensical that
trails and fire roads begin less than a mile from downtown San Rafael, but the
city provides no facilities 
to
ensure practical and easy access. Despite a minimalist approach to legitimate
access points (all very clearly shown on the excellent Trails of Northeast
Marin County map), Barbier Park is a prime hunk of real estate with the fortuitous
proximity to two other (separately managed) parks and preserves. With the combined
acreage of Barbier Park, China Camp State Park, and San Pedro Mountain Open Space
Preserve, nearly the entire mountain is now open space.
China Camp State Park has a single leg stretching
south from San Pedro Mountain into some residential San Rafael neighborhoods,
and one fire road climbing from the lowlands to the ridge. The fire road leaves
China Camp to ascend through the upper slopes of Barbier Park, then reenters state
park lands at a junction with Ridge Fire Road in the middle of the mountain. With
the assistance of a bicycle visitors can traverse San Pedro Mountain from east
to west, but hikers, who must first 
confront
an over 1000 foot ascent in just 1.5 miles, probably won't venture that far. Once
you get to the main east to west series of fire roads there are some out-and-back
options to add on to an out-and-back hike, and a few loops, but keep in mind that
if you head north or east very far into China Camp, or west into San Pedro Mountain
Open Space Preserve, you'll face another long climb back to the ridgeline on your
return journey.
The difficult access from San Rafael pretty much
ensures a hike with much less trail traffic than you'll encounter on a visit to
China Camp's north slope. With a southern exposure and little shade, the south
side of the mountain gets plenty of sun, so plan a visit in any season but summer,
unless you really want to sweat. There's a nice stretch of grassland at the start
of the fire road, a promising destination for spring wildflowers, and mixed woodland
further uphill, where you might enjoy lots of madrone and toyon berries as well
as manzanita blossoms in winter.
Start at the end of Beechwood Court, and head
uphill on a narrow and unmarked path. 
There
will likely be a few tree branches sprawled across the trail, and the first stretch
is steep, but the path soon eases up as it ascends through California bay, madrone,
and hazelnut. You'll leave the woods behind and squeeze through overgrown patches
of broom, with toyon and fennel just beyond. The path is eroded and rocky in sections.
At 0.16 mile, the path ends at an unsigned junction with Bay Hills Fire Road (shown
on CSP's China Camp map as Gold Hill Fire Road). Turn right.
The wide multi-use fire road climbs at a moderately
steep grade through grassland. You might see kestrels perched on the occasional
clump of coyote brush. Although you will have barely started the ascent, on a
clear day you should have sweeping views south to San Rafael Bay and the Richmond-San
Rafael Bridge. As you climb look back over your shoulder for ever increasingly
views to the east bay, Bay Bridge, and the two tiny lumps of land in San Rafael
Bay that comprise the Marin Islands National Wildlife Sanctuary. 
The
fire road draws near a cluster of California bays: look beneath the trees for
a rocky outcrop of pinkish stone with white veins. Some shortcut paths have been
worn into the hillside, but please stay on the obvious fire road. The grassland
starts to shrink, and trees muscle their way onto the hillside. A few buckeyes
stand denuded in winter, with seed pods dangling from bare branches, but coast
live oak and California bay are dominant. Bay Hills Fire Road levels out briefly,
a rare flat spot on the relentless climb. The grade picks up again, and invasive
broom crowds the trail. You might notice a pink car door wedged onto the branch
of a coast live oak. Crashed vehicles can be found along the sides of many old
fire roads in the bay area, particularly on roads that serviced mining operations
or missile sites. The rest of the car must be in the woods somewhere, but thick
stands of madrone, coast live oak, and California bay discourage investigation.
Bay Hills Fire Road leaves China Camp State Park and enters Barbier Park, but
there is no noticeable change on the trail and the transition is unmarked. 
The
fire road meets up with a high tension power tower, and the trail and power lines
continue uphill together. At 0.82 mile, you'll reach an unsigned junction with
a descending fire road departing to the left. Continue straight uphill on Bay
Hills Fire Road.
Madrone, coast live oak, California bay, toyon,
and manzanita line the fire road. An overgrown wide trail splits off to the left,
only to rejoin the fire road at the next crest. Stay to the right as another wide
trail heads straight uphill to a power tower; the ascent is much easier on the
fire road. The grade levels out as the fire road reaches an odd flat and cleared
spot. Two communication towers, familiar landmarks to anyone who regularly drives
through San Rafael along 101, come into view straight ahead and to the left. At
1.03 miles, Bay Hills Fire Road reaches an unsigned T junction with a paved road.
Turn right.
Although unsigned, the paved road, servicing the
towers, runs north all the way to Bay Hills Drive near the Marin Civic Center,
so I'll continue 
with
the designation of Bay Hills Fire Road. The fire road skirts one of the communications
towers, descends slightly, and meets a paved road entering from the left. Trees,
mostly coast live oak, madrone, and California bay, block any views. After a bit
of gentle up and down rolling, the fire road reaches a flat cleared crest, and
the high point of the hike, at 1.50 miles and 1045 feet (if you are ready to turn
back, this is a logical place to do so). Bay Hills Fire Road plummets downhill
to the north, and at 1.63 miles, you'll reach the first signed junction of the
hike, as you reenter China Camp State Park. Ridge Fire Road heads east (right),
but stay to the left on Bay Hills Fire Road.
A closed trail is ominously signed as illegal and
off limits on the left. The fire road, still paved, winds through the trees at
an easy pace, then climbs a hill and levels out again. Mount Tamalpais is visible
to the south (weather permitting), and traffic noise from Highway 101 drifts uphill
to the ridge. At 1.83 miles (look for a guardrail on the left), turn right
into a cleared picnic area. A former Nike radar site perches between the picnic
area and the fire road, and from there you'll have the best views in every direction,
including the hills and shoreline of China Camp, San Pablo Bay, and Mount Burdell
to the north. If you'd like to keep hiking, continue west on Bay Hills Fire Road,
then take San Pedro Mountain Fire Road into San Pedro Mountain Open Space Preserve
(this was my intended route, but as soon as I reached the Nike site, it started
to pour). Otherwise, retrace your steps back to the trailhead.
Total distance: 3.66 miles
Last hiked: Tuesday, November 13, 2001
Go to Bay Area Hiker Home page
I
sensed that this was a neighborhood unaccustomed to visitors seeking access to
China Camp State Park, Barbier Park, and San Pedro Mountain. Walking down the
street to the trail, dogs frantically barked at me, and I could imagine invisible
fingers drawing back curtains, and many a wary eye following my progress. Neighborhood
access is never my favorite way to reach public hiking trails, but sometimes there
are no established trailheads from which you can stage a hike. San Rafael's Barbier
Park is such a place. Perched on the south slope of San Pedro Mountain, the park
abuts China Camp State Park and San Pedro Mountain Open Space Preserve, but offers
no facilities or established trailheads, and visitors must enter via neighborhood
access locations where parking can be difficult. Although there are plenty of
trailheads on San Pedro's more remote north slope, it is a bit nonsensical that
trails and fire roads begin less than a mile from downtown San Rafael, but the
city provides no facilities 
to
ensure practical and easy access. Despite a minimalist approach to legitimate
access points (all very clearly shown on the excellent Trails of Northeast
Marin County map), Barbier Park is a prime hunk of real estate with the fortuitous
proximity to two other (separately managed) parks and preserves. With the combined
acreage of Barbier Park, China Camp State Park, and San Pedro Mountain Open Space
Preserve, nearly the entire mountain is now open space.
confront
an over 1000 foot ascent in just 1.5 miles, probably won't venture that far. Once
you get to the main east to west series of fire roads there are some out-and-back
options to add on to an out-and-back hike, and a few loops, but keep in mind that
if you head north or east very far into China Camp, or west into San Pedro Mountain
Open Space Preserve, you'll face another long climb back to the ridgeline on your
return journey. 
There
will likely be a few tree branches sprawled across the trail, and the first stretch
is steep, but the path soon eases up as it ascends through California bay, madrone,
and hazelnut. You'll leave the woods behind and squeeze through overgrown patches
of broom, with toyon and fennel just beyond. The path is eroded and rocky in sections.
At 0.16 mile, the path ends at an unsigned junction with Bay Hills Fire Road (shown
on CSP's China Camp map as Gold Hill Fire Road). Turn right.
The
fire road draws near a cluster of California bays: look beneath the trees for
a rocky outcrop of pinkish stone with white veins. Some shortcut paths have been
worn into the hillside, but please stay on the obvious fire road. The grassland
starts to shrink, and trees muscle their way onto the hillside. A few buckeyes
stand denuded in winter, with seed pods dangling from bare branches, but coast
live oak and California bay are dominant. Bay Hills Fire Road levels out briefly,
a rare flat spot on the relentless climb. The grade picks up again, and invasive
broom crowds the trail. You might notice a pink car door wedged onto the branch
of a coast live oak. Crashed vehicles can be found along the sides of many old
fire roads in the bay area, particularly on roads that serviced mining operations
or missile sites. The rest of the car must be in the woods somewhere, but thick
stands of madrone, coast live oak, and California bay discourage investigation.
Bay Hills Fire Road leaves China Camp State Park and enters Barbier Park, but
there is no noticeable change on the trail and the transition is unmarked. 
The
fire road meets up with a high tension power tower, and the trail and power lines
continue uphill together. At 0.82 mile, you'll reach an unsigned junction with
a descending fire road departing to the left. Continue straight uphill on Bay
Hills Fire Road.
with
the designation of Bay Hills Fire Road. The fire road skirts one of the communications
towers, descends slightly, and meets a paved road entering from the left. Trees,
mostly coast live oak, madrone, and California bay, block any views. After a bit
of gentle up and down rolling, the fire road reaches a flat cleared crest, and
the high point of the hike, at 1.50 miles and 1045 feet (if you are ready to turn
back, this is a logical place to do so). Bay Hills Fire Road plummets downhill
to the north, and at 1.63 miles, you'll reach the first signed junction of the
hike, as you reenter China Camp State Park. Ridge Fire Road heads east (right),
but stay to the left on Bay Hills Fire Road.