Add Pescadero Creek County Park to your must-hike list, if it isn’t there already. It’s remote, quiet, full of ambitious young redwoods and a smattering of really old ones that, oddly enough, survived the steam-powered saws of outrageous fortune. Pescadero…
Trails
Latest Hikes column: Huddart County Park
by tom • June 19, 2008 • 0 Comments
In this morning’s Mercury News: Huddart County Park, built on a Santa Cruz Mountains hillside west of Woodside, is better known for family reunions and Fourth of July barbecues than hikes. The racket of car engines and rowdy kids takes…
Change-of-plans hike: Monte Bello Open Space Preserve
by tom • June 16, 2008 • 11 Comments
So, how did I end up strolling through the blazing sun at Monte Bello Open Space Preserve after I told everybody yesterday I was hitting the redwoods at Pescadero Creek County Park? Two things, both motivated by greed: 1) Pescadero…
Latest hikes column: Wilder Ranch State Park
by tom • June 5, 2008 • 1 Comment
Here’s the write-up, which appeared in today’s Eye section of the Mercury News. The coast side is the obvious choice: cool breezes, spectacular views and a “cultural preserve” with Victorian-era houses, vehicles and farm implements plus and few 21st-century goats,…
National Trails Day on Saturday — get out and do it in the dirt
by tom • June 5, 2008 • 2 Comments
National Trails Day, sponsored by the American Hiking Society (which still shows me no love despite 1,762 posts and 27 pages promoting the cause they hold dearest), has oodles of trail happenings in the Bay Area. Among the highlights: Bay…
Hiking the Phleger Estate
by tom • June 2, 2008 • 3 Comments
Whoever the Phleger’s were, they had fine taste in terrain. The Phleger Estate, now safely in the hands of the National Parks Service, has some of the best trails through redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It’s very remote —…
Off to hike at Phleger Estate
by tom • June 1, 2008 • 0 Comments
The Estate is the the national parks property next to Huddart Park. Here’s a profile of a ranger who used to work there. Sandwiched between Huddart County Park in Woodside and the San Francisco Watershed land to the north, the…
A blog post on Coyote Hills Regional Park
by tom • May 27, 2008 • 0 Comments
A Tri-Valley real estate blogger mentions taking his family to Coyote Hills for a sunset hike. The guy won’t be writing any breathless accounts for Outside, but the post does offer some ideas on getting the kids out of the…
Huddart County Park: Made in the shade
by tom • May 26, 2008 • 4 Comments
You’re not going to need a lot of sunscreen at Huddart County Park. Not on the trails, that is. The park has several open areas for picnics, volleyball and garden-variety goofing off. It also has sites that can be reserved…