This loop is easy, pleasant and understandably popular, circling Bon Tempe Lake.
Location: Marin Municipal Water District
Length: 4.1 miles
Difficulty: easy
Shade: partially shaded (the Sunnyside Trail is open)
Parking: Bon Tempe ($8 – buy the pass at Sky Oaks Headquarters)
Public Transportation: n/a
WC: at Bon Tempe Lake parking lot, and another about 1.5 miles into the hike at the parking lot for Lake Lagunitas
Dogs: permitted on leash
Hiked: June 2024
Trail Route & Notes
Start at Bon Tempe Lake Trailhead, hiking up the little hill. To tackle the Shadyside first, go right. To start on the Sunnyside Trail, go left. Then just follow the path along the lake. On Sunnyside, there’s a part where you have to climb up to the road and then rejoin the hiking trail.
You could start this loop at Lake Lagunitas trailhead instead. The other thing to note is that the road to either trailhead is narrow, which really doesn’t have space for cars going in both directions and requires the use of turnouts. We went early in the morning, so there was traffic in only one direction, but keep this in mind when going mid-day.
Gallery
[…] not challenging, so if you want a longer hike, I’d recommend the loop around Bon Tempe Lake (see my post about that here), or you could combine the two, which is what did on this excursion. We hiked Lake Lagunitas, took […]