The Gravity Car Road is now a road-size trail up the mountain. As suggested here, it mixes open road cuts with dark redwood forest .. and all manner of exposures between.

I think this was an old stop. Just short of the Double Bow Knot where the Gravity Car Road meets the Old Railroad Grade.

The route has fine, if long, views out to The City. Alcatraz Island at the left. Sausalito below.

On the Old Railroad Grade. This gives the range of the mountain forest: certainly madrone, Douglas fir, and redwood. There could even be some California bay and Sargent cypress in there too. Plus, of course, all the chaparral shrubs. And this wild land is surrounded by some very un-wild civilization.

Arctostaphylos sensitiva (glossyleaf manzanita) or Arctostaphylos glandulosa ssp. glandulosa (Eastwood's manzanita). Hairy stems, more-or-less glabrous leaves.

Arctostaphylos canescens ssp. canescens (Hoary Manzanita). Probably. I'm more sure about this than about Eastwood's. Manzanitas were about the only things in bloom today, and even these were just starting.

Heteromeles arbutifolia (toyon). Autumn is more the time for fruits than flowers, like these, like the madrone berries, or ...

Rosa gymnocarpa (wood rose).

Polypodium californica (california polypody). This harbinger of the rainy season was well out.

Pellaea mucronata (bird's foot fern).

Woodwardia fimbulata. Quite an impressive stand.