The Corte Madera Creek Path is open in two disconnected segments that can be linked via a bike ride on low-stress S. Eliseo Drive or a walk or run on its sidewalk. Both sections closely follow the eponymous creek, offering trail users ceaseless—yet diverse—water views from the creek's entrance into San Francisco Bay to its trickling beginnings in Ross.
The eastern segment begins at Remillard Park on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Larkspur. The bayside facility offers views of windsurfers and docking ferries, while its central pond makes a welcoming home for turtles and ducks. Proceeding westward, the trail reaches the Larkspur Ferry Terminal, giving visitors the enviable option of riding a ferry from San Francisco and having lunch or Sunday brunch before heading out on the trail.
Soon the trail passes under the tangle of US 101 and its on- and off-ramps, where a boardwalk briefly takes trail users out over the creek. (This stretch is also a component of the San Francisco Bay Trail, a developing effort to create a 500-mile multiuse trail encircling its namesake bay.) Returning to shore, Mount Tamalpais rises dead ahead, and grassy Niven Park beckons with picnic tables and benches. The eastern segment ends just beyond the park, where S. Eliseo Drive and its waterfront homes block the trail's potential course farther west.
At the opposite end of S. Eliseo Drive, the western segment begins at its junction with the Bon Air Road Sidepath. As with the eastern segment, the western trail closely follows Corte Madera Creek. After passing through a narrow corridor bounded by the creek on one side and wetlands on the other, the trail enters Kentfield, where the creek narrows significantly. Quickly crossing over to the southern side of the creek, the path runs closely behind buildings and homes, before ending, appropriately, in a parking lot behind a bike shop in Ross.
Parking for the Corte Madera Creek Path is available at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal (101 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard), although a fee applies on weekdays.
I started inline skating at Ross (very bumpy start in the parking lot makes for an uncomfortable start). It was smooth sailing, even over the first wooden bridge, until college of marin’s parking lot. The pavement hasn’t been kept up, so it’s pretty bumpy, enough for me to want to go around it next to the trailers until I reached the stree. After crossing it was ok until the second wooden bridge which only Has splintery guard rails. Then it is increasingly bumpy until about the middle school. I turned around there, only Got Half the workout i hoped for.
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