The weather has been uncharacteristically temperamental this May. It's been hot and dry, then cold-ish and wet from one day to the next. Sunday was a particularly crazy day in the Tri-Valley because it started off raining, and then cleared up but was very windy. I took advantage of the weird weather and ventured out for a weekend hike with my young daughter. The park we visited in Pleasanton, Gold Creek Open Space, was almost entirely empty. Social-distancing win! Click "read more" to read about the park and the trail.
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The San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge is one of the refuges in the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Of all the refuges, this one has the longest trail, so my daughter and I decided to try this park out first yesterday on a maiden voyage to the complex. We had a blast, and I know that we will be coming back here in the winter to see the great migration of Aleutian cackling geese and Sandhill cranes. I was really excited that we saw several Riparian brush rabbits right near the parking lot.
Ed R. Levin County Park is a 1,558 acre county park in Milpitas that combines elements of an urban park with a wilderness area open space park. I made a maiden voyage to this park with my daughter yesterday afternoon. Although the hike that we did around the perimeter of Sandy Wool Lake was appropriate for the littlest hikers, there is a lot more to explore. Indeed, there is the best of both worlds in this park: my daughter has already told me that she can't wait to come back here "when the virus is over" so that she can play on the very cool looking playground structure, and there are two trails in Ed Levin that connect into Mission Peak Regional Park for a longer hike (see here). Seems like we will definitely be heading back.
As the shelter-in-place orders continue, I have continued to restrict my hiking as much as I can on the weekend. I am going out midweek with my toddler because the parks are just so much less populated midweek. Yesterday, we went a little further from home than we have ventured in the past two months, but still not very far: Round Valley Regional Preserve in nearby Brentwood. Click "read more" to see about our little adventure for the day.
Last week, my 2-year-old daughter and I went to Morgan Territory midweek. I took her for the first time to this park; I had been here before to scope out this nice spot that was easily walkable for her. It packed an even greater punch than I realized! It was a great way to spend a nice spring day in Livermore.
I have been looking over some of my archives from years past lately, and I've been thinking a lot about Lake Berryessa. This place was very special to me during my time in grad school, but I haven't been back in a long time. Read more to hear about some of the highlights from the past.
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!
As I wrote about our recent trip to Tassajara Creek Regional Park, I have been limited recently in my ability to hike. I have only been to the parks mid-week when I have my very young daughter with me. So we aren't really hiking for distance as much as hiking to make close observations about the natural world around us. Today we went to Livermore's Sycamore Grove Park and we had a blast noticing the different wildflowers blooming and wading in the Arroyo del Valle.
It's been harder to go out hiking since the shelter-in-place orders came down. I can't go for a long hike at all during the week because I am both working from home and taking care of my toddler daughter. And during the weekend, I am reluctant to go out because the parks were packed the first couple weekends of the quarantine: I want both to avoid the folks who are irresponsible and to keep the crowds down so that government agencies don't close ALL of the parks in the area. So mostly, I have been taking very short trips with my daughter to open space parks mid-week. On Monday, we explored Tassajara Creek Regional Park for the first time.
On Wednesday afternoon, my daughter and I made a wonderful little trip to a beloved park local to us in Livermore: Delle Valle Regional Park. It was a golden afternoon after a morning of rain, and we had the park almost entirely to ourselves. We had a marvelous time, but when we got home I saw an email from the EBRPD announcing that it was closing several of its parks (including Del Valle) because folks last weekend were not responsible about social distancing. Although it really saddens my heart to lose access to this amazing place, I understand why the Park District made this call. I hope that this sends the message loud and clear to everyone in the state: enjoy your parks safely or we will all lose this privilege at a time when we desperately need it!
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