Mount Tamalpais for kids
The Sleeping Lady Mountain. A true story near Tamalpais Valley, CA, told for kids 3-12.
Read along
Look up! That big mountain is Mount Tamalpais. Everybody around here just calls it Mount Tam. Now, squint your eyes and look at its shape. Lots of people say it looks like a lady lying down, taking a nap.
That's why it's called the Sleeping Lady! Can you find her head? The name Tamalpais probably comes from the Coast Miwok language, and it might mean something like "coast mountain". And here's something fun. In the 1970s, some friends started riding old, clunky bicycles down the steep, bumpy dirt roads around here, really fast.
They kept fixing and inventing better and better bikes. And that's one of the places the mountain bike was invented! Maybe one day you'll ride down Mount Tam too.
Quiz the back seat
What does Mount Tam look like, if you squint?
Show the answer
A sleeping lady. A sleeping lady. Shhh, don't wake her up!
Fun facts
- Mount Tam's East Peak is about 2,570 feet tall.
- Marin riders in the 1970s helped invent the mountain bike.
For grown-ups
Written by the Tumbly team, then checked claim by claim against the sources below before it was published; stories that don't pass stay off the app and this site. Narration is pre-recorded, and nothing you do on this page is tied to your kids.
Sources
More stories in Tamalpais Valley
Roads
Town and county names: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).