About Buck Gulch Falls (Fairway Falls)
Buck Gulch Falls (I’ve also seen it called Fairway Falls) was one of three local waterfalls in the Ignacio Valley Preserve within the city of Novato north of the San Francisco Bay Area.
This waterfall was what I would categorize as a Marin County “Neighborhood Waterfall” because there were a handful of waterfalls whose access trails essentially went by peoples’ properties into preserves or private property easements.
In this particular instance, the waterfall was accessed on a trail at the end of a residential street flanked on one side by a golf course (Marin Country Club) and upscale homes on the other side (see directions below).
The falls itself was a modest 15ft tall or so on the Arroyo San Jose, but there were reportedly more waterfalls further upstream on the seasonal creek.
However, those waterfalls reside in the H Ranch Property, and the easements to the private land pretty much end at the Buck Gulch Falls so access to those upper waterfalls is prohibited.
Nevertheless, of the Novato Waterfalls that I’ve witnessed on my visits, this seemed to be the only one of these local neighborhood waterfalls that had better-than-ephemeral flow.
Case in point, on my first visit in late February 2022, where we had a very dry January and February after a lot of rain in December, this was the lone waterfall in the area that actually still had appreciable water (albeit in rather weak flow).
When I returned to this waterfall in early March 2024, this was right after a series of atmospheric river storms supplying a year’s supply of rain in about a month’s time.
The result of that timing yielded a nicely flowing waterfall, which you can see pictured at the top of this page and immediately below.
So that says something about the longevity of the Buck Gulch drainage beneath the Big Rock Ridge, which I’d imagine relies heavily on rain and coastal mist (as do other “backyard waterfalls” in Marin County).
In other words, you really have to time your visit (like you do for the other local waterfalls here), which can get trickier to do given how Global Warming has been yielding an all-or-nothing pattern of extreme drought with extreme rains in between.
Indeed, it’s also a main reason why such waterfalls are mostly known to locals or passionate waterfall chasers (like ourselves) who are in the know, but they’re largely unknown to others.
Trail Description
Anyways, visiting the Buck Gulch Falls involved a straightforward out-and-back hike at about 0.6-0.7 miles in each direction (according to my GPS logs) or roughly 1.2-1.4 miles round-trip.
Starting from the cul-de-sac at the end of Fairway Drive, we went past a gate followed a short paved stretch before it gave way to a conventional dirt trail.
There were forks on the trail that ultimately converged on the same spot, which were largely due to a crossing of the Arroyo San Jose.
The most straightforward way to go would be to keep left on the main fork and cross the creek directly, but sometimes the right fork may lead to a plank (not guaranteed to be there) that might act as a flimsy bridge across the creek without getting wet.
By the way, this creek crossing can also be used as an indicator of how well the Buck Gulch Falls would be flowing – the drier the crossing, the less flow the falls will have.
The trail then reached another trail fork roughly 0.2-mile from the start, where we kept left to continue another 1/2-mile towards the Buck Gulch Falls (the path on the right was the Spyglass Trail, which access the Big Rock Ridge at the top of the drainage).
Afterwards, the Buck Gulch Falls Trail narrowed a bit as it continued to skirt the north side of the creek, eventually crossing it once again.
By the way, there’s a separate, steeper trail that climbed above the south side of the creek, and my map seemed to suggest that it was another access to the Big Rock Ridge Road (we’ve never taken that detour so I can’t comment more on it).
Anyways, sure enough, as we proceeded further along the trail with its gentle incline, the trail eventually ended at the attractive Buck Gulch Falls.
It’s also worth mentioning that on my drier first visit, the creek went silent and the second crossing was dry during this stretch as I believe the creek’s water can hide beneath the porous and loose-soiled surface.
So don’t be discouraged and turn back prematurely since you’re almost at the end of the trail anyways.
Private property fencing and signs were surrounding the end of the trail, which made it abundantly clear that this was the turnaround point.
Overall, we wound up spending less than an hour on this trail on each of our visits, and this included taking pictures and chatting with a locals that we’ve happened to meet here.
Authorities
Buck Gulch Falls (or Fairway Falls) resides in the Ignacio Valley Preserve near Novato in Marin County, California. It is administered by the Marin County Parks. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
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