Rush Creek Preserve

In my search for new parks to visit, I found Rush Creek Preserve in Northern Novato.  It had many elements that worked for me and my youngest daughter who was joining me today:  birds, water, fit within our time window, not super strenuous (daughter's requirement). Its essentially a wetland preserve along side San Pablo Bay.  Not unlike many that I have visited already, but for me, they never get old!

As you can see in the photo above, it was a combination of wetlands and oak woodlands.  We walked about 4 miles of easy trail where there were wetlands on our left and oak woodlands on our right.   The tide was high, so we saw lots and lots of ducks (mallards and common golden eye), but we did not see other sea birds that enjoy low tide and the mud flats.

This park is part of the Marin County Parks, and  is right off of the 101 Freeway in Novato.  It can be accessed through several trail heads, some of which are part of neighborhoods.  Google maps did not do a good job of getting me there, but the website has good directions, which I recommend. We entered at the Bindford Road trail head which has off-street parking.  This is a very dog-friendly park.  I was definitely thinking that my now 17-year-old dog would have loved this park when she was able to go on hikes with us.  It is also great for mountain biking and walking.  There is no entry fee.

From this point, it took us a while to get away from the freeway noise and sights, but we eventually did, and as we were rounding corners we were encountering new bodies of water and what looked like an extensive trail system that one could spend a whole day exploring.  It was a very enjoyable walk, and although I wasn't super inspired return here as a destination, I thought that it would be a great place to live near and to be able to go to on a regular basis and observe the wetlands at different tidal moments and seasons.  Here are some more photos of the hike.