Chilling on the California Coast
The Bay Area Ridge Trail parallels Penitencia Creek for nearly four miles through two large community parks and beneath Highway 101 in San Jose.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Urban Hiking at Penitencia Creek on the Ridge Trail”
Some people bag peaks. We bag lighthouses. The New Dungeness Lighthouse off the coast of Sequim, WA, poses a unique challenge.
The light station sits in the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the end of the Dungeness Spit – the longest sand spit in the United States. Lighthouse visitors must make the 10-mile round-trip trek at low tide or get swamped in a jagged thread of tumbled rocks and driftwood that crown the spit’s high water mark.
Dungeness Spit Trail (Aug. 25, 2022) – 10.2 miles
Continue reading “A Hike to the Light at the Tip of the Dungeness Spit”
A glacial valley that boasts 140 inches of rain per year cradles the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park. Moss and lichen-covered spruce, hemlock, fir and other native tree varieties rise from the valley floor along the banks of the Hoh River and its South Fork. A layer of ferns and shrubs undergirds the canopy. The South Fork Hoh Trail is a less-traveled alternative to the Hall of Mosses and other trails located near the Visitor Center on the Hoh River’s main branch.
South Fork Hoh Trail (Aug 20, 2022) – 8.1 miles, 265 feet of elevation gain
Continue reading “A Trail Less Traveled in the Hoh Rain Forest”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail across Sonoma Mountain climbs a series of switchbacks at North Sonoma Mountain Regional Park and Open Space before crossing a narrow isthmus of dedicated open space and plunging headlong into the forest at Jack London State Historic Park. The “wall” was purely psychological as we crossed the 80 percent completion threshold on our Ridge Trail trek.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Battling the Ridge Trail ‘Wall’ on Sonoma Mountain”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Santa Teresa County Park begins with a steep, mile-long hike up to Coyote Peak and its magnificent view of the South Bay. After returning to the starting point, the trail undulates through the park before exiting down a rocky set of switchbacks and picking up suburban footpaths along the banks of Calero and Los Alamitos creeks.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “A Boot Conundrum at Santa Teresa Park on the Ridge Trail”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail winds past the remains of California’s oldest commercial mining operation at Almaden Quicksilver County Park. The trail segment runs across land first tapped for its mercury content in 1845. Look for the partially reconstructed ruins of a 20th-century processing plant trailside above English Camp and other buildings in the surrounding hills and valleys.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Quicksilver Relics at New Almaden on the Ridge Trail”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch County Park rises gently above the 90-year-old Coyote Dam and Reservoir and meanders through a pasture on the ridgeline east of Gilroy. Recent rains left the hills a brilliant green and portions of the trail a cattle-churned quagmire.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Boot-sucking Mud above Coyote Lake on the Ridge Trail”
We will remember our visit to the North Cascades as one of formidable hikes, breathtaking vistas and mind-numbing commutes to trailheads.
Continue reading “Touching the Sky in Washington’s North Cascades”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail at El Sereno Open Space Preserve winds down the side of the preserve’s namesake mountain past coastal scrub to a scruffy overlook above the Lexington Reservoir. The views of the Silicon Valley are magnificent.
We are hiking the 400-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Silicon Vistas at Mt. El Sereno on the Ridge Trail”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Hiddenbrooke Open Space in Vallejo rises and falls – steeply at times – across pastures riddled with wide cracks, gopher holes and the occasional cow.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Rolling Pastures at Hiddenbrooke on the Ridge Trail”
A green meadow frames Kings Creek as it meanders from a forested trailhead, over the namesake falls and into the Dixie Fire burn scar at Lassen Volcanic National Park. Nearly a year after the fire, the meadow contrasted sharply with the gray cinders and blackened conifers that dominated the landscape on the loop trail to Bench Lake. Signs of recovery were sparse.
Kings Creek Falls and Bench Loop Trail (Aug. 6, 2022) – 4.3 miles
Continue reading “Hiking the Dixie Fire Scar at Lassen National Park”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail climbs abruptly into Rockville Hills Regional Park into a woodland of gnarled blue oaks overlooking rugged bluffs of volcanic rock. The trail leaves the park just as abruptly, descending to the paved and landscaped Vintage Valley Trail as it passes through suburban Fairfield.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Moody Oaks at Rockville Hills on the Ridge Trail”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Skyline Wilderness Park begins with a difficult one-mile climb through an oak-studded hillside with views of the city of Napa and neighboring vineyards. The trail continues along canyon highlands and above Lake Marie to Suscol Ridge. The view from the ridge includes vineyards, Suisin and San Pablo bays, the Carquinez Strait, and mountain peaks in all directions. On a clear day, we were told, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge.
We are hiking the 400-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Napa to Suscol Ridge via Skyline Wilderness on the Ridge Trail”
This suburban segment of the Bay Area Ridge Trail extends south from Blue Rock Springs Park to the Benicia State Recreation Area. After tracking two miles of Vallejo boulevards, the trail climbs into the undeveloped highlands along the border with Benicia. The dusty, shadeless highlands include extensive views of Vallejo and San Pablo Bay to the west, and the Carquinez Strait to the south. The trail begins with a short hike up the desolate hill above Blue Rock Springs Park to a dead end at a gap in the Ridge Trail.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “A Tromp across the Vallejo Highlands on the Ridge Trail”
The Bay Area Ridge Trail doesn’t offer many opportunities for a mid-hike mimosa. We found one at mile eight of the Vallejo-Benicia Waterfront hike along the Carquinez Strait. If we’d hiked in the opposite direction, we might not have finished. We found no mimosas when we returned six weeks later to cross the strait on the Benicia-Martinez Bridge.
We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.
Continue reading “Mimosas on the Ridge Trail at Benicia”
No one told us that chasing lighthouses would be this hard. And fun.
We came to Washington to do some hiking and see a few sites in Seattle. A docent at the Admirality Point Lighthouse suggested we check out a few lighthouses along the way. The same docent sold us a “passport” to have stamped at each location, plus a selection of related maps. He might have sold us the Tacoma Narrows Bridge if we had stayed much longer.
And so we committed to a lighthouse odyssey. We traveled by automobile, ferry and foot. We peered through fog and past no trespassing signs. We drove to the extreme northwest corner of the contiguous United States and through the streets of Seattle. We hiked five miles to the end of a spit of sand. And back.
A handful of the light stations were resplendent with renovations, boasting docents and giftshops. Nearly all of them were still operational, but many needed a coat of paint. One had moved from the coast to town decades ago and survives as a home on a quiet street. Most did not have a stamp for our passport. Alas.
But we tracked down 15 lighthouses, or their remnants, and had a great time doing it. Here’s where we visited:
Continue reading “Lighthouse Tales from the Washington Shoreline”
The trail to Bumpass Hell at Lassen Volcanic National Park gently rises along a lightly wooded ridge with views of Lassen and other iconic peaks before plunging into a steaming geologic cauldron. Acidic water boils. Mud belches. The stench of sulfur hangs in the air. We brought the grandsons.
Bumpass Hell (Aug. 5, 2022) – 2.7 miles
Continue reading “A Hike to Lassen’s Bumpass Hell … and Back”
Planning a fall color tour at Rocky Mountain National Park is an exercise in timing and luck. We started late, which added to the challenge. After consulting the online foliage forecasts, we chose the last week of September 2021 for our visit. With Labor Day already past, we scrambled to snap up one of the last remaining rentals in Estes Park, made a set of suboptimal timed entry permits, and drove east via Southern Utah. We got lucky.
Continue reading “Fall Color on the Trail at Rocky Mountain National Park”Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is littered with slot canyons. Most are remote and difficult to navigate. So we pressed the easy button and took the paved road to Singing Canyon. The diminutive slot is known more for its acoustics than any degree of difficulty.
The Devil’s Garden loop trail at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument passes beneath a collection of hooded hoodoos located at the end of 15 miles of suboptimal gravel road. Bring an AWD vehicle.
Devil’s Garden Trail (Sept. 21, 2021), 1 mile
Continue reading “The Devil’s Garden Less Traveled at Grand-Staircase Escalante”