Deer Park to Phoenix Lake Hike (March 3) Preview

For the first time since mid-December, we'll be back hiking in the Mount Tam watershed lands managed by the Marin Municipal Water District. Here's Wendy's description of this hike: "We're so lucky to have such beautiful areas so close to central Marin! We should see baby blue eyes, Indian paintbrush and other wildflowers, and early butterflies like the spring azure!". (We did this hike much later in the Spring last year on April 29th - click here for a recap of that outing --- so we may not see the same plants that we spotted that time).

Directions to trailhead: Go west on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to Fairfax. As you enter Fairfax, turn left at the gas station, and make an immediate right in front of the movie theater. This puts you on Broadway. Make the first left onto Bolinas Avenue. Just after it veers left, turn left on Porteous Avenue. Follow it to the parking lot at Deer Park. 15 minutes from College of Marin. Restrooms at trailhead. (Click here for a Google Map showing the area near the trailhead and for driving directions).

Weather forecast: As of Thursday, February 26, the National Weather Service forecast for Fairfax on Tuesday, March 3rd, was mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and a high near 54. (Click here for an updated forecast).

More on this hike: Presumably we'll follow the same route as last year. The Martin's Hiking in Marin trail guide does not have a single map and directions for our hike from Deer Park School to Phoenix Lake and back, but you can use the following two maps and hikes from their book to piece together our path:

Start off using the Martin's Hike "C6 - Deer Park Road - Yolanda Trail". Head up the Deer Park Fire Road to Oak Tree Junction, then turn left (to the south) and hike uphill on the Six Points Trail. When you reach the Six Points junction, switch to Hike "C4 - Hidden Meadow - Yolanda Trail" and hike down the Yolanda South Trail to Phoenix Lake.

Using that same hike and map, follow Shaver Grade uphill, and while doing so, refer back to the C6 hike and map to follow the Grade to Five Corners. Continue straight down Deer Park Fire Road to Boy Scout Junction. Cross the fire road and take the Junction Trail back to its intersection with Deer Park Fire Road (just where you turned off onto Six Points Trail when you were headed toward the lake).

MMWD has a printable map of its watershed which shows these trails, and here's a Google Earth view looking from Deer Park over Bald Hill towards Phoenix Lake. We'll head from bottom to top and a little left of center in this picture to reach the lake, then turn right at the lake and go from top to bottom by starting up Fish Gulch (shown in purple lettering on the photo) and onto the Shaver Grade (shown in white lettering). Click on the photo to open a larger image in your Web browser.