150. Hippie Tree
I was reading my son’s Redwood HS Bark (school newspaper) end-of-year edition, and saw Michaela Ravasio’s photos of great summer secret spots in Marin. Two of the places (Inkwells and Cascade Falls) she photographed were places I’ve already blogged about, but two I haven’t. One of these, the Hippie Tree, I’d never even heard of. So, naturally, my curiosity was piqued.
There were only a couple of references to it I could find on Google (one in Tam High’s online newspaper and the other in Drake’s) and there were no maps, but I did get written directions from one of the articles. So, Noah and I hopped in the car and headed down Tiburon Boulevard. However, the directions were not quite right, so we did a bit of searching, and asked of a number of walkers if they’d ever heard of the Hippie Tree. The first three had never heard of it, even though they said they were long-time Tiburon residents, but the fourth one thought he knew of a “weird” tree with a swing off of Gilmartin Drive. We headed over and found it easily.
The path to the Hippie Tree, which you can see on the hill from the road, is a fire road to a dirt trail. The land it sits on is public, owned by the Town of Tiburon. It is an old, giant Eucalyptus tree, that really looks like the tree that the Swiss Family Robinson built their treehouse in. It’s easy (enough) to climb up and onto one of the many horizontal branches to just hang out. And, of course, it’s perfect for a rope swing, which someone has constructed.
The swing is very sturdily built and arcs way out over the hill, so you really get quite high up off the ground (thrilling!). The view is fabulous – from Richardson Bay and Mt. Tam to the Golden Gate Bridge towers, Belvedere and San Francisco. A definite must-do for us swing-lovers!
Where: Entrance to the fire road is across from 100 Gilmartin Drive, Tiburon, 94920 (map)
365 Things to Do - Marin 
I grew up in Tiburon but now live in San Anselmo. My daughter recently mentioned that she had heard of this place and that she wanted to take a friend there. I was curious and googled it and found your blog post. I am pretty sure from your description and the map that this place was always called Tick Rock, not Hippie Tree, when I was a kid, which would explain why those long-time Tiburon residents had never heard of it (I presume there were lots of ticks around there). There used to be an extremely rusted-out old pickup truck there, and my friend and I would ride horses (they were stabled further up the hill, off Hacienda Drive in Del Mar) down to Tick Rock (there were virtually no houses on Gilmartin then.
I know it as Tick Rock as well. The truck was gone by the time my friends and I found it. We used to hike there after school sometimes. Before the houses were put up. It is awesome. i have taken my 2 children and now they have cool memories of the place.
Definitely Tick Rock and we rode our horses there as well, from the bottom of what is now Gilmartin Dr (which was a fire road) galloping all the way to the top to Tick Rock.
This place is amazing!!!
We visited the Hippie Tree for the first time yesterday evening. The fog was rolling in over Richardson Bay as we walked up Gilmartin Dr. but we were quick enough to take some stellar photos. We’d never seen the bay from that perspective before. We hiked up the fire road to the top. Our dog loved romping free. On the way back down we took a swing under the Hippie Tree. A memorable hike on so many levels.