The Marin Hills are a series of steep high ridges and peaks in southern Marin County. The centerpoint of these hills is the 2571 foot, 784 m Mount Tamalpais near Mill Valley. The hills are bordered to the north by the lowlands to the west of Santa Rosa, to the east by San Pablo Bay of San Francisco Bay, to the south by Golden Gate Strait, and finally to the west by the San Andreas Fault and Olema Valley. Parts of the hills are protected for their scenic beauty by Mount Tamalpais State Park and the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. The many ridges and peaks of these hills form a dramatic backdrop to the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco skyline, and several towns around Richardson Bay when viewed from the south. Marin County is a county located in Californias San Francisco Bay Area, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. ... Mount Tamalpais (Mount Tam) is a peak in Marin County, California, USA. It is a popular hiking destination for residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, home to the Edgewood Botanic Garden, and often considered symbolic of Marin County. ... Mill Valley is a city located in Marin County, California. ... Santa Rosa, Spanish for Saint Rose, is the name of a number of places: Argentina Santa Rosa, Argentina Santa Rosa Department, Catamarca Santa Rosa Department, Mendoza Brazil Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul Santa Rosa, Goiás Colombia Santa Rosa, Bolívar Santa Rosa, Cauca Santa Rosa de Osos, Antioquia... San Pablo Bay is a shallow tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in northern California in the United States. ... San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, and the Golden Gate The San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining of approximately forty percent of California, flowing in Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean. ... This article is about the strait in California. ... View of the San Andreas Fault on the Carrizo Plain in central California San Andreas Fault is a geological fault that spans a length of roughly 800 miles (1287 kilometres) through California, United States. ... Mount Tamalpais State Park is a California state park, located in Marin County. ... The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Pickleweed Creek, the upper arm of Richardson Bay. ...

Since these hills lie right next to the ocean, they force much of the incoming moisture out of the air and rainfall here is much greater than the bayside of Marin County. Due to this the Marin Municipal Water District has constructed serveral dams and reservoirs to store water for the population of Marin. The high rainfall also makes these hills suitable for coast redwoods and douglas fir to grow, especially close to the ocean. However, a side effect to this is that the eastern hills, where most of Marin's population lives, are drier and hotter due to the shielding of marine breezes. The low hills to the east support only oak and some grassland. Binomial name Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl. ... Species See text. ... Species See List of Quercus species The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus, and some related genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus. ... An Inner Mongolian Grassland. ...

The western part of the hills hills once had extensive old growth forests, but in the 1800's they were an important source of valuable timber for the San Francisco Bay Area and thus logging took out most of the old growth stands. However, one old growth stand remained uncut, Sequoia Canyon, due to the steep terrain and withstood pressure from loggers and water companies. This stand is now the Muir Woods National Monument, part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. The parklands of these hills are popular with tourists and locals alike seeking to escape the urban areas of the Bay Area. Old growth forest, sometimes called late seral forest or ancient forest is an area of forest that has attained great age and exhibits unique biological features. ... USGS Satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. ... Muir Woods National Monument is a unit of the National Park Service in Marin County, California, 12 miles (19 km) north of San Francisco. ...