Tag: Northern California Hiking

Trione-Annadel State Park

A Deadfall Scramble on the Ridge Trail at Trione-Annadel

The Bay Area Ridge trail at Trione-Annadel State Park begins on a connector path through Howarth and Spring Lake parks in Santa Rosa. It snakes past a pair of reservoirs – Ralphine and Spring lakes – wraps around a bevy of water tanks and crosses an earthen dam. Upon reaching the state park, the trail parallels Spring Creek before rising into wooded highlands on the east side of Bennett Mountain. As the rocky track descends, it passes through a marshy meadow and finally a series of switchbacks through a blackened redwood forest. Portions of the state park were damaged by the 2017 Nuns fire and 2020 Glass fire.

We are hiking the 407-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.

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Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve

A Sea of Clouds below the Ridge Trail at Sierra Vista Open Space

The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve begins on a ridge 2,000 feet above the Santa Clara Valley. The trail traverses the face of a steep hillside before rising and then dropping steadily into the valley below. It ends abruptly just past the park’s historic homestead, where a locked gate, yellow caution tape and sign with skull and cross bones make clear that the last two miles are closed indefinitely.

We are hiking the 407-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.

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A Ridge Trail Toe Jammer at Alum Rock Park

The Bay Area Ridge Trail winds past parking and picnic tables along the wooded banks of Penitencia Creek at Alum Rock Park before ascending, more steeply than anticipated, more than 1,500 feet into the pastures and chaparral of the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve. The parking lot was full when we arrived at 10 a.m. on a weekday. But we found a curbside spot in the San Jose neighborhood just outside the park. Trail traffic was minimal once we began hiking uphill.

We are hiking the 407-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.

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Logistics Complicate Ridge Trail Hike at Mount Umunhum

The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Mount Umunhum climbs steadily and occasionally steeply through a mixed forest of madrone, bay laurel and oak. The 3,486-foot peak, pushed skyward by a left bend in the San Andreas fault, is the fourth highest in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In addition to the requisite views and a large parking lot, the summit contains “The Cube,” the shell of a Cold War era radar installation that was decommissioned in 1980.

We are hiking the 410-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.

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Pinnacles National Park

Props for Underappreciated Pinnacles National Park

Quick. Think of a national park in California. Did Pinnacles National Park in the Gabilan Mountains east of the Salinas Valley come to mind? Probably not. We paid a visit.

A national monument elevated to national park status in 2013, Pinnacles is roughly three hours of bad traffic southeast of our home on the San Francisco Peninsula. Fractured volcanic cliffs, talus caves and California condors comprise the most prominent features. The park is hot in summer and cold in winter. Nearby lodging is scarce.

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Big Sky & Wild Pigs at Grant Park on the Ridge Trail

The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Joseph D. Grant County Park rises and falls along a ridgeline with a view of San Jose to the west and the Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton to the east. Large and lovely meadows bookend the trail at the north and south ends of the trail. Watch out for feral pigs.

We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.

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Battling Ridge Trail Anxiety at Mission Peak

The core of the Bay Area Ridge Trail across Mission Peak Regional Preserve rises 1,600 feet in just three miles from the parking lot at Ohlone College. It then rises some more. The trail flattens out as it bypasses Mission and two other peaks before diving steeply down the west side of the mountain toward Ed R. Levin County Park. The views and elevation gain are breath-taking. Recent trail extensions meander through neighboring hills at the college and county park.

We are hiking the 400-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.

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Hood Mountain Regional Open Space and Preserve, Santa Rosa, CA

Hood Mountain Jump Starts Ridge Trail Trek

The Bay Area Ridge Trail at Hood Mountain begins with a gentle climb from the St. Francis Winery and Vineyard in Santa Rosa toward Hood Mountain Regional Park and Open Space Preserve. Upon entering the preserve, the trail spikes skyward to a ridge about 300-feet short of the 2,730 foot summit. Fire damage from 2020 and storm damage from 2023 litter the mountain. The views of Sonoma Valley are lovely.

We are hiking the 405-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.

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North Sonoma Mountain Regional Park

Battling the Ridge Trail ‘Wall’ on Sonoma Mountain

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.

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Trail to Coyote Peak

A Boot Conundrum at Santa Teresa Park on the Ridge Trail

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.

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Almaden Quicksilver County Park

Quicksilver Relics at New Almaden 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.

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Coyote Lake Harvey Bear Ranch County Park, Gilroy, CA

Boot-sucking Mud above Coyote Lake 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.

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Bay Area Ridge Trail

Silicon Vistas at Mt. El Sereno on the Ridge Trail

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.

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Hiking the Dixie Fire Scar at Lassen National Park

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

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Bay Area Ridge Trail

Moody Oaks at Rockville Hills on the Ridge Trail

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.

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Skyline Wilderness Park

Napa to Suscol Ridge via Skyline Wilderness 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.

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Vallejo-Benicia Buffer

A Tromp across the Vallejo Highlands 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.

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Vallejo-Benicia Waterfront

Mimosas on the Ridge Trail at Benicia

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.

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