Tennessee Valley
- Food
- A sandwich from home
Crowd level: Mixed. Go early, or pick a weekday
Best season Weekday mornings. Weekend lots fill by mid-morning in every pretty month. Winter weekdays are the private version.
Drive 25 min
From downtown San Francisco through the Golden Gate, about 25 minutes without bridge traffic. Weekend returns are slower.
Parking. The lot at the end of Tennessee Valley Road is free and fills by mid-morning on weekends. There is no overflow that is legal. Arrive early or pick a weekday.
Tennessee Valley is a flat ranch road to a small cove, about a mile and a half each way. The beach is a wreck site. The valley was a dairy. It is the Headlands without the tunnel-viewpoint crowd, if you start early.
The short version
The steamship Tennessee wrecked in fog at this cove in 1853. The valley later held a ranch, and the trail is the old ranch road. You are walking to a shipwreck and a pasture, not to a developed beach. The waves are not for casual swimming. Read the signs.
Food nearby
A sandwich from home
There is no food at the trailhead worth planning. Pack it. Mill Valley has real cafés if you need one on the way back. Skip anything that sells the Headlands as a brand experience.
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