Kirby Cove Campground Trip

Whenever I visit recreation.gov, I always find that there's one campground that looks super-appealing, and that's Kirby Cove Campground. Of course, every time I tried to book it, it was booked up, especially since those of us who are working stiffs with kids in school can't afford to do anything other than a weekend trip. Then during the New Year's Eve Wildcat Campground trip, Daniel told me the secret trick to booking the site.  Armed with that secret trick, it took me only 2 weeks to book campsite #1 at Kirby Cove for the first weekend of April.

Booking that far out is always risky, but fortunately, the rain that was supposed to land on both Thursday and Friday got revised out to only Thursday night, so we were assured of dry weather during the weekend. Both kids and Xiaoqin had caught some sort of viral infection but we decided to do the trip anyway, given how hard it had been to book it.

When you book 2 nights at the campground, surprisingly few people will come for both nights. Each campsite can hold 10 people, so we invited friends, including Stephan, his dad, and his son Otto and some neighbors for Friday, and Mickey and Kevin's families for Saturday. I had a full weekend of hikes planned as well.

Arriving at 4:00pm at the campground we followed the instructions to unlock the gate and drove down to the campground, stunned by how nice it was. Campsite #1 was amazing, with 2 tent pads with views of the golden gate, and its own private swing! We pitched a tent and then went out to eat --- in retrospect we should have bought take out just to enjoy how nice the campground was! It was windy when we arrived, but the campground itself was sheltered so putting up the tent was much easier than expected.

Stephan and Allan's family showed up much later but they were no less impressed. The cold made sleep difficult, but the view in the morning was more than worth ti.

Breakfast with a view of the golden gate is amazing. 

We then convoyed up to Trojan point to start the classic hike on Matt Davis trail and then return on Steep Ravine.

The views and greenery was amazing, with flowers starting to bloom. The forest flowers were by far the highlight, since they'd gotten so much water that the growth was verdant.

We visited Stintson beach and had lunch there, and with some difficulty peeled the kids away from the beach for the hike back up to the Pantoll Ranger Station.

Steep Ravine was nothing short of amazing, with the creek sounding like jet engines roaring, and the stream demonstrating multiple cascades, including some which we hadn't seen before because the recent rains had been so heavy.

We finished the hike in great spirits, returning to the campground to find Kevin already there. We got a chance to explore the beach, including the tunnel, the caves, and then Mickey showed up with a portable grill and made burgers for everyone!

Saturday at Kirby Cove was much different than Sunday, with lots of day trippers and visitors who would walk down the dirt road for access and take pictures, sit on the beach, or just explore.

When dinner was over we'd sit and watch the sunset and watched the city lights turned on slowly. It was magical.

On Sunday morning, we packed everything up slowly after breakfast and then went for my second day's plan. I was going to go for a bigger hike but most people looked pretty tired so opted to start everyone at the morning sun trailhead.

The SCA trail + morning sun combination is the easiest hike with most scenery for the buck you can get in the Bay Area. The views are stunning, and best of all, the non-enthusiastic hikers can treat it as a one way hike to the parking area while those who can't get enough can double back and fetch the car and pick them up.

Wildflowers were blooming and we stopped to take photos so often people asked us why it was taking us so long to walk back to the car!

When the hike and pick up was over, all the other families were done but it was just 12:30pm which was perfect timing for visiting Point Bonitas Lighthouse while it was still open, something I've never achieved because of the narrow 3 hour opening window. So we went down to Sausalito and bought take out Mexican food and then drove through the tunnel again to the lighthouse parking area and ate lunch.

The lighthouse access tunnel was great, and nicely sheltered from the prevailing wind, which was blowing much harder than I expected given what we experienced in the morning. Despite all the signs telling us that access was restricted to 49 people at the lighthouse at a time, it must have been a light traffic day because the rangers and docent who were tasked with counting people never stopped anyone from crossing the suspension bridge and exploring the lighthouse. I noted that there's a guided tour available at sunset for people who want to see the lighthouse turn on.

At the end of the trip I asked Boen if he thought Wildcat Campground was better or Kirby Cove and he said: "Kirby Cove, no contest!" The campground is restricted to 3 nights a year a person so I guess we'll have to return next year if he likes it so much!