I've mostly been hiking midweek during the portion of the day that I have parenting duty with my toddler. I'm a bit anxious about hiking on the weekend, and it's nice for her to get out of the house safely with me for some social-distancing-appropriate activities. But because she is a bit big for the carrier and a bit small for real hiking, our outings have been on the short and easy side. We made a wonderful little trip to Bishop Ranch Regional Park in nearby San Ramon. It was perfect for us!
We found an unofficial trail down to the creek about a quarter of a mile along the trail, and we took that down to the creek. Here, she took off her shoes to wade in the creek and we walked along the bed and just explored all the cool rocks, ferns, and trees. She loved the feeling of the mud between her toes in this creek--a very different sensory experience from the feel of the rocky creek bottom at Sycamore Grove earlier this week. It was cool for her to compare and contrast the two creeks! This park has plenty of options for more rigorous hiking even if none of the trials are very long in terms of mileage: the hills are steep so the short hikes still offer good exercise. The Stream View Trail was a really great hike for a toddler. As a side note: there was lots of poison oak, so you can't let your kids really run about without watching them. Make sure that they stay on the trail, and if you go play in the creek bed then make sure you teach them about what to watch out for. It's a good learning opportunity! This place was a little gem, and I can easily see us returning here again! Edit: we did, indeed, return here a week later! We did the exact same route, and there were even more wildflowers, especially buttercups and winter vetch. See the second gallery below for photos from the second trip. First trip: Second trip, one week later:
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