Old St Hillarys
Open Space Preserve & Church
One of the finest hidden gems in the entire SF Bay Area. No exaggeration! The views and weather are outstanding.
View from upper trail to Golden Gate Bridge. Also see more pictures.
On a picturesque hill overlooking Tiburon is Old St Hilarys Church, built in 1888 for workers at the then prosperous Point Tiburon railroad yard. (Note: Back when there were no Bay bridges railroad passengers were ferried back & forth from Tiburon to San Francisco.) This small historic Carpenter Gothic church with vaulted ceilings is a national landmark … but it is the setting that will take your breath away.
You can take a trail westerly from the church across a beautiful open space preserve known for its rare and profuse wildflowers. There is another preserve trailhead higher up which leads to some spectacular 360 degree views — to the south is the City & Golden Gate Bridge, northeast is the water of San Rafael & San Pablo Bay, and to the west are the mountains of Marin County.
Location: The church is located at 201 Esperanza St, Tiburon. The preserve is a bit hard to find even for locals. As shown in the map above to get to the trailheads go north up Lyford Drive from Tiburon Blvd, then turn east on either Vistazo Street (to walk to the church), Lyford Drive or Heathcliff Drive.
Links: website, hiddenSF links, google, yelp
Related Links:
- A few more pictures
- Also see the Old St Hillarys Preserve Map, Church Map and the Tiburon-Sausalito Map information.
- Sausalito-Tiburon Map
- Sausalito Best Things To Do and Map
- Maps of best hiddenSF things to do
- Top of page and Home page
