Today, my daughter and I took our maiden voyage to Anthony Chabot Regional Park, an expansive park in the East Bay. To see more photos of our hike, click "read more."
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Like Don Castro and Cull Canyon, Contra Loma is an EBRPD park that focuses on a swimming lagoon. Unlike the other two, the water of the swimming lagoon is clearly chlorinated and filtered, so it seems more like a pool and less like a secondary reservoir. This made for an interesting swimming experience! The pool has actual sand in its 0-depth area, but no sand in its deeper sections. My toddler loved this feature! We first hiked the perimeter of the reservoir and then we swam in the pool to cool off afterwards.
A month ago, I visited this area of Sycamore Grove Park in Livermore. In my post on that visit, I opined that this area would be a great place to bring a little one. In this trip, I did just that: I brought my toddler to explore this shady, creek-side portion of this lovely park.
So this was not a hike, but--boy!--was it a great experience for this not-so-lonely hiker and her hiker-in-training. We went to the Lindsay Wildlife Experience (formerly the Lindsay Wildlife Museum), which abuts an amazing city park in Walnut Creek, Larkey Park. Between the museum, the playground, and the swim park, this is just a dream for any family of young children in the East Bay.
Despite flawless weather, I did not have the best day today at Garin Park, one of the two parks in the complex of Garin/Dry Creek Pioneer Parks. I made the most of it, but I was really off my game.
This was a milestone hike for me: my 149th and 150th parks visited! I opted to do this hike, recommended by the EBRPD for their 2019 Trails Challenge, a moderate 5-mile hike that links the two parks together via the Chabot-to-Garin Trail. It was a really different hike than what I normally do because it wanders in and out of a lot of suburban space in Castro Valley. I don't know that I would do this specific trail again, but I definitely plan to visit both of these parks separately in the future. They are very different from each other, but both Don Castro and Five Canyons are really wonderful parks. Click "read more" to see more photos from my adventure.
I am kicking myself that I never discovered Baylands Nature Preserve back when we lived in Palo Alto (map here). This park used to be so close to where we lived, but we never noticed it because it is not labeled as a green space on Google Maps. Alas!
After dreaming about this hike for a while, I finally made it deep into Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park to explore Kilkare Canyon. This 7-mile hike is a variation of the hike to Turtle Pond that inspired me. I originally planned to do that longer hike, but the temperature in Pleasanton exceeded the forecast, and I adapted the hike to maximize shade and minimize direct sun exposure. The route I did was very nice, and I was mostly successful in turning what could have been too hot of a hike into something fun. One of the features of the hike (for me) was the explosion of Mariposa lilies, which are one of my all-time favorite flowers. It was worth it for me to brave the heat to see these flowers blooming in such abundance. With that said, I think that I will make sure to repeat this hike (or a variation of it) when it's earlier in the year--and therefore cooler--next spring.
Huckleberry Botanic Preserve is an EBRPD park in the Oakland Hills near Montclair Village. Here is the EBRPD's blurb about it:
Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve is an ecological jewel. The native plant community here is found nowhere else in the East Bay. It represents a relic plant association found only in certain areas along California's coast where ideal soil and climatic conditions exist. It was really a lovely park to visit, and the self-guided nature trail is really well done! It's been a minute since I've been to Tilden Park, and this weekend I went for the first time to the Tilden Nature Area. This part of the park is an awesome place to bring young children--not only for the charming Little Farm but also for a gentle 1.28-mile loop that is stroller accessible.
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