Family-friendly Fairway Falls

Trailhead to Fairway Falls. Photo by Jessica Bay.

There’s no need to work up a sweat on a waterfall hike, especially if the hike is a family-friendly, one-mile round trip to Fairway Falls, a seasonal gusher in Ignacio Valley Open Space Preserve near Novato. Read more.

Fairway For Families

Tetley at Fairway Falls There’s no need to work up a sweat on a waterfall hike, especially if the hike is a family-friendly, one-mile round trip to Fairway Falls, also known as Arroyo de San Jose Falls. This seasonal gusher offers its best rewards just after a hard rain, when a swath of water takes a fierce, 30-foot tumble through a forested ravine into a rock-lined pool and the fast-flowing, foamy creek below. Read more.

Wide Open Spaces

The Marin County Open Space District, which turns 40 this year, was born from a heroic movement to preserve natural lands and contain urban sprawl. Today it administers 34 preserves—all but one of them dog-friendly—totaling more than 20,000 acres and providing Bay Area residents and visitors with many ways to play. Four-legged hikers enjoy the rare privilege of accompanying their humans off-leash on the fire roads in the preserves, and while tethers are required on other trails, none of the paths are off limits to canines. Read more.