Bay Area state parks | San Francisco Travel Blog
For Great Views, Hiking, Biking, Camping and much more, Check Out China Camp State Park
China Camp State Park in Marin County is one of the Bay Area’s best places to get away from it all. Although fairly close to San Francisco, across the Bay and north near San Rafael, it doesn’t draw as many visitors as other Bay Area state parks, which is just fine with the locals who love hiking, biking, camping and exploring this beautiful place. China Camp draws its name from an old Chinese shrimp-fishing village located on San Pablo Bay, which provided shrimp to most of the Chinatowns in the U.S., as well as exporting many tons to China. Today, there are many vestiges of this once-thriving community from a junk anchored just offshore to a visitor’s center inside a weathered old warehouse full of old artifacts and exhibits explaining the history of the camp and the area.