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| Ring Mountain Open Space Reserve | |
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Getting
there: The main
preserve is on Paradise Drive east of Corte Madera. Take the Paradise
Drive exit from Hwy. 101. Just past the turnoff for Westwood drive is
a small sign on the right for Ring mountain. Park along the side of the
road. There are no facilities. The best time to visit is from April to
early June.
Difficulty: The trail is well marked and makes a loop of about 2 miles, going to near the top of the mountain for beautiful panoramas of San Francisco and Sausalito. The hike is moderately strenuous (much uphill, and downhill on the return.) Setting: Ring Mountain features rugged coastal hills overlooking San Francisco Bay and is capped by serpentinite rocks. Plant communities include grassland, swales, small copses of coast live oak, buckeye, and bay, and serpentine-dependent vegetation. Special plants: pitted onion (Allium lacunosum), star onion (A. unifolium), western larkspur (Delphinium hesperium), tidy tips (Layia platyglossa), hayfield tarweed (Hemizonia congesta), long-rayed brodiaea (Triteleia peduncularis), Ithuriel's spear (Triteleia laxa), Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana), Indian pink (Silene californica), and the rare endemic Tiburon mariposa lily (Calochortus tiburonensis).
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