Hi there!
I went to Muir Woods without a car.
If you don’t have a car, you can go by shuttle, tour, bus, or uber.
It really comes down to how much time and money you want to spend on getting to Muir Woods (and back), and whether you want to do other things on the same day.
By doing it on your own, it will probably end up being an all-day thing. Like, you may not want to plan anything else official to do.
If you do it by shuttle or tour, it will leave you with more time to do other San Francisco things. Going by public transportation takes time.
On the day I was in San Francisco, the Muir Woods shuttle was not an option because it was a weekend only thing and I was there on a weekday.
In my case, I went to Muir Woods the second time I was in San Francisco (arriving on a cruise ship!), and I made it a Muir Woods day.
I’ll give you details below on exactly which bus stop I got off at to go to Muir Woods, the trails I took, and which bus stop I got on at for the return. (They were different bus stops.)
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First, the quick tips for Muir Woods!
Yes, you can get to Muir Woods without a car.
One of the most common ways to go if you don’t have a car is through the official Muir Woods shuttle which departs from Larkspur across the bay from downtown San Francisco.
Otherwise, you can take a Muir Woods shuttle from Fisherman’s Wharf.
Another one of the popular ways is to do a Muir Woods tour.
You can do a Muir Woods only tour, but what makes a tour a popular way to go is that you can also do a combo tour that includes other top San Francisco things.
So it can be a good way to maximize your time to be able to see several things you want to see.
For example, along with Muir Woods, you can have your tour be an Alcatraz Island combo tour, a Golden Gate Bridge combo tour, or even a Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley wine country combo tour.
And then, you can go to Muir Woods by public transportation.
From downtown San Francisco or Fisherman’s Wharf, you can go by bus all the way (transfer required).
Or you can go by ferry to Sausalito, and then take a direct bus to get you “near” Muir Woods.
Now, here are things to know about a day trip to Muir Woods!
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1. Muir Woods shuttle
The easiest cheap way to get to Muir Woods without a car is to take the official Muir Woods shuttle. The cost is $3.75 for a round-trip shuttle ticket.
The shuttle is from Larkspur Landing. You can take a bus or ferry to Larkspur from downtown San Francisco. (map) See the Larkspur ferry schedule.
You need to make a reservation for the shuttle.
You will choose both the Larkspur departure time and Muir Woods departure time when you buy your tickets.
The official recommendation is to make your Muir Woods departure 3 hours after your Larkspur departure.
If you’re staying in downtown San Francisco or Fisherman’s Wharf and don’t want to have to worry about getting to Larkspur, the easy thing would be to get the Muir Woods shuttle from Fisherman’s Wharf.
Now, we will get into more details about taking public transportation to get to Muir Woods… aka the long way with lots of walking!
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2. Ferry to Sausalito
The fun way to get to Muir Woods without a car when coming from the downtown and Fisherman’s Wharf side is by ferry!
You can take a ferry to Sausalito, and then a take a bus the rest of the way to “near” Muir Woods.
See the Sausalito ferry schedule.
You can buy ferry tickets on arrival, but it’s better to use a clipper card to pay for it because it will be cheaper. A clipper card will also make it easy to pay for the bus.
The clipper card is the public transportation card for San Francisco.
You can create a digital card with the clipper card app and then connect it to apple pay or google wallet. Then, you can pay for the ferry and bus with your phone. This is what I did.
3. Bus to Muir Woods
You can take a bus to Muir Woods. Or more accurately, you can take a bus to get near Muir Woods. Or more accurately than that, you can take a bus to get near a trail that leads to Muir Woods. 🤣
Basically as soon as you get off the bus, you can also immediately start hiking.
While your hike doesn’t start in Muir Woods itself, it’s not like you will need to walk on the side of the road very much or anything like that. (At least that’s how it was where I started from!)
There are different spots that you can access a trail that leads to Muir Woods. I started my hike near Mountain Home Inn.
A bus from Sausalito to Mountain Home Inn is a direct bus, and it will take around 50 minutes. (map)
If you don’t want to take the ferry, a bus from Fishermans Wharf to Mountain Home Inn will require a bus transfer. It will likely take around 1 hour and 40 minutes. (map)
I used google maps to figure out public transportation in San Francisco, and this worked out quite well for Muir Woods too.
The bus might be late. And if this is the case, google maps does a cool thing where you can actually see where the bus is located! It will also update the app with how much the bus is delayed.
The bus from Sausalito was on time.
On the way back from Muir Woods, the bus was like 15-20 minutes late so it was nice to know that it was actually coming.
If you don’t have a clipper card, then you need exact change to pay for the bus fare. See current bus fare.
4. Hiking from Panoramic Highway to Muir Woods
In short, once I got off the bus, I hiked the Panoramic Trail to Canopy View Trail to Lost Trail to Fern Creek Trail to the Muir Woods Visitor Center.
This may sound complicated but it’s really not. You can see these trails by zooming in on google maps, and there are signs along the way on the trail.
It will be about a 1 hour hike from the Mountain Home Inn bus stop to the Muir Woods visitor center. (map)
You do want to take the Fern Creek Trail, because that is what connects to Main Trail (that’s the name of it) of Muir Woods National Monument.
Main Trail is (yes…) the main trail of Muir Woods, so Fern Creek Trail will allow you to hike Main Trail on your way to the visitor center.
Basically Main Trail is THE trail to do at Muir Woods. This is the most popular trail.
At some point when you are hiking, you will see a sign that says you are entering Muir Woods National Monument.
5. Bus from Muir Woods
On the way back, I got on the bus from a different bus stop. You can get to Panoramic Highway quicker a different way by taking the Dipsea Trail from the visitor center.
Again, you will find the Dipsea Trail on google maps.
It’s about a 40 minute walk from the visitor center to the closest bus stop. (map)
This also means that you could reverse it and do it in the opposite direction that I did if you want to get the normal experience of Muir Woods of starting the Main Trail from within Muir Woods National Monument. I don’t really think it makes much of a difference. 🤔
6. No phone service/data at Muir Woods
It’s widely reported on the internet that there is no phone service or data within Muir Woods National Monument.
I found this to also be true. I did get reliable service once I arrived at Panomaric Highway so I was able to check the bus times.
It will be a good idea to screenshot the bus timings while you are able to use your phone before your start your hike.
When using google maps on your phone, there is an option to click through to see future timings.
7. Mill Valley
Another option I had in the back of my mind to get back after Muir Woods was hiking to Mill Valley.
I had seen this mentioned a few times when I was looking into how to get to Muir Woods by bus.
Mill Valley is a more populated area which means you might have a better chance with uber and/or more frequent bus timings. It is further away though.
You will continue to hike the Dipsea Trail to get to Mill Valley. When I was looking at this, I was thinking that I could take a bus from near Old Mill Park. Once again, you can see the trail on google maps.
There is a Dipsea trailhead near Old Mill Park.
Walking from the Muir Woods visitor center to Old Mill Park is around an hour. (map)
My day trip to Muir Woods itinerary
- Ferry from downtown San Francisco ferry terminal building
- Arrive in Sausalito
- Walked a little bit. Got a hot sandwich at Venice (map)
- Bus from Sausalito to Panoramic Highway (Mountain Home Inn bus stop) (map)
- Walked across the street to the trailhead
- Hike to Muir Woods visitor center:
- Panoramic Trail
- Canopy View Trail
- Lost Trail
- Fern Creek Trail
- Main Trail
- Muir Woods visitor center (get a national park passport stamp here!)
- These trails all connect. It’s not as complicated as it might seem. You can see how these trails connect on google maps and there are signs on the trail.
- Leave Muir Woods National Monument
- Hike the Dipsea Trail to Panoramic Highway (map)
- Bus stop on Panoramic Highway in front of Bayview Street
Hope this helps!
More for your travel to California:
- One day in San Francisco without a car
- Things to do in California without a car
- One day in San Diego without a car
- California cruise travel tips
HAPPY HIKING MUIR WOODS!
More travel planning tips!
HAWAII | SOUTH PACIFIC
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