Next time you're in San Francisco, head over the Golden Gate Bridge, turn left and aim for Stinson Beach. Just a stone's throw from the city is West Marin, with its miles of raw nature and wild surfing beaches. Suddenly you're in glorious countryside, surrounded by eucalyptus, redwoods and Douglas Firs. This is Route One, the coast road from Mexico to Canada. In under an hour you're further away from the city than a parallel universe. Welcome to nature's playground.
Leave out Napa and Sonoma - West Marin's a blink away and more beautiful. This is the birthplace of mountain biking and spiritual home to surfing, hang gliding, whale and seal watching and exhilarating hiking.
Good surf on unending beaches has the added thrill of the "red triangle", breeding ground of the great white shark. The day before I arrived a man was bitten yet I watched surfers charging out to catch the best waves. Kite surfers caught the wind, skimming across the rollers. They say the chance of being chomped is less than dying in an air crash. I'll stick to flying.
For airborne thrills you can't beat hang gliding from Mount Tam over the Bay Area - with the ocean breezes you can fly for two hours. You can find tandem flights with an experienced pilot.
You can rent million dollar beach-front palaces on Stinson Beach. Or down the road, the other side of Stinson is Steep Ravine where Mount Tam has a campsite and 10 fantastic old-fashioned log cabins built in the 1930s. They have big windows looking out over the ocean, no running water and outside dunnys.
Mount Tam
You can see 2,571ft Mount Tamalpais from San Francisco. Some say its name comes from the Miwok for "Sleeping Maiden". It was America's first tourist mountain after the gold rush. You can drive to the East Peak and walk up the final trail. It's well worth it.
The springtime roadside is lined with wild blue irises, orange Californian poppies and yellow mule ears. We sat on the East Peak with butterflies and humming birds hovering round us. The view spun out over the Pacific and inland across the Bay from Sausalito to San Francisco, the shell of Alcatraz in between and Mount Diablo beyond Oakland. A red tailed hawk soared across and over the redwoods below. The chaparral had a shock of spring flowers, wild lupins and white star lilies. The city shimmered in the distant haze.
Mount Tam is the Mecca of mountain biking. Here bikes first left the tarmac changed their geometry and got knobbly tyres. Now on Mount Tam Lycra is King. The air is alive with the whiz of expensive derailleurs. Cycle the trails and you'll understand why it started here 25 years ago. The whole of West Marin is woven with inviting biking and hiking trails. The arduous 20-mile Mount Tam loop ends with an English pub. For the less energetic the 10-mile Bay View trail winds along the shoreline. You can't lose.
Muir Woods
Round the corner from the Marin headlands is the redwood paradise of Muir Woods named after the Scots born conservationist John Muir who created America's national park system.
Redwood trees are taller than you can imagine. They pierce the skies, their canopy improbably far away. Light dances between the massive soaring trunks. There is space in these woods. Want to believe there is a God? A slow trail through these serene redwood groves will do it.
Below the woods Muir Beach is a pretty family cove where Janis Joplin's ashes are scattered. She sang in The Pelican Inn. Not far is Green Gulch Zen Center. You can stay overnight and bliss out if that is your cup of green tea.
Point Reyes
Point Reyes is a peninsula thrust 10 miles out into the Pacific. The San Andreas Fault finally falls into the sea at Tomales Bay where fine Pacific oysters are farmed. Beef and dairy cattle graze rich pastures made fertile by the sea mists. Tule elk graze in the north. Some ranches are organic and produce cheeses like the renowned Point Reyes Blue.
Francis Drake landed here after capturing enough Spanish bullion to rescue England's entire economy. He claimed the land as Nova Albion but never came back.
Sir Francis Drake Boulevard coasts for miles across Marin from San Quentin Prison to the lighthouse on the tip of Point Reyes. Passing through Inverness, I found Manka's where Prince Charles and Camilla stayed on their eco visit in 2005. The hotel burned down recently but Manka's still has wooden lodges sheltering in the woods. They pride themselves on their food.
On the last few miles the trees slip away and wind scarifies the land. Hardy spring flowers carpet exposed slopes. On the spit of land with ocean on both sides we looked over the cliffs at the shipwrecking coastline of Drakes Bay. Elephant seals, mothers and calves, huddle together basking on sheltered coves below. Young bulls rear up in mock battle. Moaning sighing and belching carries up from the shore. By the lighthouse, a wide beach with surf 10 rollers deep stretches off into the hazy distance. Just beyond the granite cliffs and churning waters of Drakes Bay is Stinson Beach, but this is a universe away from the sheltered peace of the redwood forests.
A horse is hitched outside the Old Western Saloon in Point Reyes Station. It says NO BARKING on the wall opposite. It's funky alternative cowboy inside the saloon. Then I see the unlikely picture over the bar. It's Charles and Camilla in the doorway of the Old Western.
Bolinas
The Bolinas turnoff on Route One has no sign. Whenever the State puts up a sign, the Bolinas Border Patrol pull it down within 24 hours. In the pretty two street town the air is thick with craziness. Smiley's opened with the gold rush and is California's oldest drinking house. It has a few rooms and a lot of character. A bunch of surfers were celebrating the day's escape from the sharks.
Frank Lloyd Wright
On your way back come through San Rafael. Take the turnoff for Marin Civic Center. Head for the Center. Go in. It's free and it's Frank Lloyd Wright's last masterpiece. Walk into a 1950's future, into Forbidden Planet and Dan Dare. Go upstairs and into the café garden. You are in a futuristic movie and comic strip simultaneously. It had a facelift three years ago and looks fantastic. Do yourselves a big favour and see this before you return to what passes for the modern world.
Getting there
Hank flew to San Francisco with Virgin Atlantic (From around £581.60rtn).
To travel by bus to West Marin cross the Golden Gate on to Marin City or San Rafael. Then take West Marin Stagecoach.
Where to stay
West Marin is packed with wooden houses with outdoor hot tubs.
Stay in a palace right on Stinson Beach at Seadrift Realty. Sleeps 10 people and costs around £300 (£152) a night.
Redwoods Haus B&B has great chalets at Steep Ravine, from €130 (£66) a night in summer. Book seven months in advance for cabins ($35 - $60 a night (£18-30) from the State Park. Family camping from $9 (£4.50) a night.
Good enough for Charles and Camilla, try the luxury rustic lodges in their woody glades at Manka's, +1 415 669 1034. From $215-315 (£109-159) a night. Great food.
The Olema Inn on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. From $198 (£100) a night at weekends.
In Bolinas is the Blue Heron Inn, +1 415-868 1102 or for craziness go for Smiley's on coastalpost.com/smileys, +1 415 868 1311. $74 (£37) a night on weekdays; $84 (£43) at weekends.
In Muir Beach stay at the mock Tudor Pelican Inn, from $190 (£96) a night. Play darts, have a pint and eat fish and chips.
What to do
Hang gliding & Paragliding Fly with the red tailed hawks from Mount Tam sfhanggliding.com, +1 510 528 2300
Surfing Stinson Beach: livewatersurfshop.com;
Bolinas: 2milesurf.com for boards and wet suit rentals. Surfing lessons at surfbolinas.com
Kayaking Point Reyes Sea Kayaking Tours & Classes. Stinson Beach Surf and Kayak: +1 415 868 2739
Mountain Biking Rent bikes at Cycle Analysis at Point Reyes.
Cycle tours of Mount Tam at buysanfranciscotours.com and infohub.com and blazingsaddles.com. You can even rent tandem and three-seater mountain bikes
Horseriding
Five Brooks Stable, horse rental, in Olema.
