We went to a new-to-us beach that is part of the Half Moon Bay State Beaches: Venice Beach! I was so impressed with all of the wildflowers blooming along the Coastside Trail.
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As a treat to myself this weekend (ahead of Mother's Day), I decided to take a nice hike on a loop that winds in between Morgan Territory and Mount Diablo State Park. I loved this 8-mile route, and plan to do a variation of it again next spring! Click "read more" to see my loop and more photos.
Although some high-use parks are starting to close to prevent the spread of COVID-19, there are plenty of less-used parks that are still open. The state park system is especially affected in the Northern California counties of Marin, San Mateo, and Sonoma Counties, but that is a dynamic list. Point Reyes had to turn people away from Chimney Rock this weekend because there were too many people trying to go and it was not compatible with social distancing. But there are still LOTS of parks that are not too crowded.
I went--for the first time--to Castle Rock and Diablo Foothills Parks, which are part of the East Bay Regional Park District. Although there were other folks on the trial, I still had plenty of solitude along some of the trails deeper into the interior of Diablo Foothills. There were some cattle guards (so bring your hand sanitizer), but the wide fire roads of the park were great for hiking while maintaining 6 feet of distance. And it was so gorgeous! I loved this hike, and I can't wait to come back to both of these two parks. I've been working on building a landing page for all of the California State Parks that I have visited, and in sorting through the many parks of Northern California, I started to notice that there were several parks that I visited many years ago that have not made it into my blog. Although I do have photos from those trips, they are from older cameras and the quality of the images is not as good as the camera I am using now. So this is a single post to remember three trips from years past: 1) Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve (in Guerneville), 2) Ed Z'berg Sugar Pine Point State Park (in Tahoe), and 3) Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park (in Big Sur). The photos are not as good as what I can do now, but the memories of these places sure are powerful and dear.
The last time I went to Calaveras Big Trees State Park, I kept thinking about how much I wanted to come back with my family. Well, we finally make it over the long Presidents Day weekend! Although it's about a two-hour drive for us from Livermore to Arnold (pretty long for a 2-year old to be in the car), it was well worth it. The photos from this blog post are all taken by my husband. Click "read more" to see more photos of the sequoias.
Mount San Jacinto State Park is a really cool park to visit, even for the casual visitor. I visited this park back in 2012 with my dad. In this throw-back Thursday post, I'm sharing some of our photos from that visit.
Today I took a vacation day from work to take advantage of something that doesn't happen all that often: snow in the East Bay! I had planned originally to go back to Calaveras Big Trees State Park, like I did last January; however, when I was driving my daughter to her school I could see that the summit of Mount Diablo was covered with snow. I love Mount Diablo, but until today I had never visited it with snow. It was wonderful!
This was a return trip for me and my daughter to Caswell Memorial State Park. Last time, my daughter was not in the mood for hiking, so we mostly hung around the lovely picnic area. This time, I brought my toddler backpack carrier, so we were able to complete a longer loop, going along the aptly named Majestic Oaks Trail!
Caswell Memorial State Park, in Ripon, CA, is pretty magical in autumn. It is an example of riparian oak woodland, which once flourished throughout California's Central Valley. This ecosystem is threatened and still declining, so this forest really feels special. The oak trees are majestic (no matter the time of the year), and there is a wild grape vine that runs rampant in the park; the leaves of the grape vine turn yellow and red in the fall, which really adds to the golden feeling of the forest.
Today, my little daughter and I had a glorious day in Half Moon Bay with our friends, another mom who has a young son. We went to the western portion of Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve to have a nice picnic by the creek under the redwoods. The little ones threw rocks in the water of the creek and ran or crawled under the redwoods, checking out sticks of interest and banana slugs. Then, my daughter and I went on to Half Moon Bay State Beach on our own to "say hello to the ocean" before driving back to Livermore. Redwoods and beaches? What more could anyone ask for?
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