The landscape is strewn with many sizable boulders which exhibit a variety of lithologies including high-pressure metamorphic rocks of amphibolite, blueschist, greenschist, and eclogite grade.

[8] Ring, originally a dairyman who later became a Marin County Supervisor, acquired enough land on the Tiburon Peninsula to have his name affixed to the mountain.

[9] Ring Mountain remains largely undeveloped, however, during the Cold War in the 1950s, a military installation was built on its eastern peak, designed to house anti-aircraft guns.

Initially, this area was managed as a nature preserve, but in 1995, Ring Mountain was transferred to Marin County while retaining a conservation easement to ensure the land would be used for scientific and educational purposes.

[8] Phyllis Ellman, a biochemist, and member of the Marin chapter of the Native Plant Society, played a key role in the campaign to preserve Ring Mountain from development during the 1970s.

Landslides and their deposits are abundant on Ring Mountain, for example at Triangle Marsh, and they carry serpentinite and metamorphic blocks far downslope from their in situ positions.

The origins of the serpentinite-matrix melange, and the mechanism of mixing the metamorphic blocks of different ages and apparent thermal-burial histories, has been a matter of debate.

[20] Ring Mountain is a popular hiking and rock climbing destination and provides spectacular 360 degree views of the northern Bay Area.