Marincello - Marincello Today

Marincello Today

Although the Marin Headlands currently sits among thousands of acres of virtually untouched and protected open land, some remnants of the 1960s development project still exist. The main boulevard that was built upon the Northwest portion of the area still remains as a dirt road. It is now a popular hiking, biking, and horse-back riding trail, properly named "Marincello Trail." The trail connects to other trails at the top of the Headlands that would have been roads and streets for the planned community.

Off Southbound Highway 101, there is an exit for Rodeo Ave that leads nowhere. It consists of a short highway off-ramp that leads to another dirt road—currently gated to restrict automobile traffic. If Marincello had been built, this dirt road would have been upgraded to a main boulevard to carry traffic in and out of Marincello. Instead, it also became a trail, accessible by foot only, that intersects with the Marincello Trail at the top of the hill.

Today, the Headlands make up part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which at 16 million visitors a year, is one of the country's most popular National Park Service areas.

In 1972, three of the people responsible for blocking the development, Huey Johnson, Douglas Ferguson, and Martin Rosen, founded The Trust for Public Land, an organization dedicated to conserving land for people across the United States.