Creative plans for preservation have become models for urban centers elsewhere - the largest urban national park lands in the world, the first multicounty regional parks, and the protection and restoration of the Bay due to citizens' action groups such as the Save San Francisco Bay Association. A full 27 percent of its land area and 28 miles of its wild coast are under national park designation, while just 11 percent of Costa Rica is national park land. When other preserves and public-access wildlands are added in, Marin's percentage of protected land jumps to 44 percent. From the air, Marin County's Mount Tamalpais appears as one forested peak, but maps show it as chopped up into state park, national park, water district and regional open space designations. Even Muir Woods National Monument fills just one small valley that merges with far larger and lesser-known forests that blanket the west side of the peak.
Hikers can discover much the same experience on the ground.
Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, home of starfish and sea urchins. As I talked with veteran users of local wildlands, I found myself in good company. Virtually all of us knew a few places well, but rarely ventured beyond our favorite haunts. We were more likely to have spent weeks in the wilds of Nepal than on the shores of the Bay opposite our homes. To patch these holes in my experience, I decided to approach even the most mundane of my Bay Area journeys as if I were traveling abroad.