The hook
A redwood mountain-bike preserve on Skyline hiding a sandstone monolith that weather carved into a giant honeycomb skull.
01Why it's worth it
El Corte de Madera Creek is the Skyline preserve mountain bikers love: miles of shaded dirt trail through second-growth redwoods on the ocean side of the ridge. Tucked inside it is the Tafoni Sandstone Formation, a big pale outcrop that thousands of years of salt-air weathering have eaten into honeycomb lace, so pocked and hollowed that in the right light it reads as a skull or a meteorite dropped in the forest. It's the same tafoni process you see on the coast at Bean Hollow, but here it's a single strange monolith deep in the redwoods, reached by a short spur off the trails. For anyone on a gravel or mountain bike, it's a good ride to a weird payoff.
02How to experience it
Park at the Skyline (Highway 35) lots and take the trails down to the signed Tafoni/Vista Point spur (a short walk in from the bike-legal trails). It's dirt, so it suits gravel and mountain bikes and hikers alike. Weekdays are quiet; watch for bikes on the descents.