I hiked Corte Madera Mountain with my niece.  This was niece’s first time hiking here.  I enjoy taking others on my favorite hikes.  This is one of them due to the amazing views!  The weather was perfect but there were more people than I have ever encountered on this trail.  We actually had slightly over an extra mile as the parking area was full and cars were parked above it on the road on both side.  I recommend doing this hike on a weekday to keep the crowd to a minimum.

We were fortunate as everyone was headed down as we headed up so there were only 4 of us at the top when we arrived at the peak.  (The other people were right behind us.)  We were able to see all the way to the ocean from the top and even some snow peaked mountaintops from the San Bernardino Mountains.  On the other side of the peak we found a wooden sign that you can hold up and take a picture with.  That was something new as it wasn’t here in December when I hiked here.

We saw a lot of vultures on the hike and other smaller birds.  Some of them were drinking from the partially frozen water puddle in the shade. The most numerous birds were  acorn woodpeckers which were flying above us and in the trees.