One of my favorite parts about living in San Francisco is how close and easy it is to get out into nature. Also, the SF weather complements this well. I can’t think of many other places in the US where I could go hiking in mid-February in shorts and a tank (granted it was an abnormally hot winter).

The Alamere Falls is a gorgeous hike about 1-1.5 hours north of SF. I’ve included my SparkNotes version and a fuller version below for a better picture of what this hike is like. Happy Hiking!

• Best Times to Go: We did the hike in mid-February since the weather had been so warm. I recommend anytime during Indian summer in September / October or when it’s sunny / clear out. I highly recommend going early and arriving at least by 9:30AM to get parking and to avoid waiting during the hike since there could be lines to get to the Falls.
• How Long is the Hike: The hike is ~8.5 mile hike and takes 4-6 hours depending on how many stops (there are some scenic spots) and how crowded it gets
• How to Get There: Type “Palomarin Trailheads” in Google Maps to get to the parking lot.
• What to Wear: Layers. I wore shorts since it could get pretty warm, but brought pants for the poison ivy.
• What to Bring: Water and food / snacks since it is a ~8.5 mile hike round trip. There is a beach at the end of the hike, which makes a great picnic spot. If you want to end up in the water, then also bring a change of clothes and a towel.
• Other Tips: Use the toilets at the start of the trail since there aren’t any post that and double check water levels. I heard that some folks hiked it during the drought / prior to the recent rain and there was no water running at all.

My friends and I wanted to do this hike several months ago but it ended up raining so we were really excited when mid-February felt like summer. Multiple people recommended we get there early so we left SF a little after 8AM and arrived at 9:30AM. Even then, the parking lot was pretty full and we were already seeing people walking back. I highly highly recommend going early because by the time we were leaving around 2pm, cars parked over a mile away from the lot and people were waiting in long lines to climb down to the Falls.

The start of the trail is directly behind the toilets in the parking lot. Also, always stay on the coastal trail route since there are several forks along the way. One of my favorite parts about this hike is that there are areas where you end up right along the coast. The picture below is earlier in the day when the fog was still there, but was still a great spot to rest.

The hike to the Falls was fairly easy as we were mostly going downhill towards the sea. Before the Falls, there is an area where we were on one side of a lake and then ended up on the other side before going into a more woody area.

That is when we started to be on the look-out for the famous sign to the Alamere Falls. I read and heard from friends to find this hidden sign or else you end up hiking in the wrong direction. Boy, that was pretty hard to find since there wasn’t even a clear fork in the road. The sign is literally on the left side of the trail (see below).

This is also the part where you would want to put on longer pants. The path is really narrow and almost doesn’t look like a path since you are walking sideways or rubbing against all the plants (and possibly poison ivy). However, once you get through then you are almost home free! To get to the Falls, there are a series of parts where it becomes a slip and slide. This is where it is crucial to come early since it takes more time for each person to go down and results in lines to get down / back up. We ended up in this spot where we saw two mini waterfalls.

My friends and I thought, “This is it?” when we saw those little ones. It wasn’t until we wandered further towards the ocean and then realized we were standing on top of the Alamere Falls. Descending to the beach / base of the Falls was more difficult than the first part. Be careful climbing down and back up since the rocks can literally crumble. As we were waiting, I tried grabbing the wall along the waterfall to see if I could rock climb and the rock literally turned into powder as I grabbed it.

 

Once we were at the base, it was pretty cool to see the Falls and how it created this perfect trail to the ocean. I have to admit I thought the Alamere Falls would be larger, but we are also still in a drought so I was happy to just see water.

We hung out by the Falls and on the beach to refuel and wait for the lines to die down. Unfortunately, there is only one (to our knowledge) way to climb down and up the Falls. I was so glad I ate beforehand since it was harder going back than it was coming to the Falls. On the way out, it was nice to stop by the areas that cleared up, especially seeing this sight.