Christmas with the Family!

My family gamely agreed to 5 hikes in 7 days. They are such good troopers!

Crystal Springs County Park

I have written about the Crystal Springs trail system before. This time I went back with my family to do the segment that starts at the intersection of 92 and Cañada roads and goes south. We didn't get very far, but my impression of the trail was the same as it was before: it's very beautiful, but it's a little too close to the road and it's frustrating that they put up so much fencing to keep the hikers from approaching the water. It's a lovely hike if you live in the urban areas of the peninsula and want to hike without driving far, but it's not exactly as pristine and undeveloped as it looks in the pictures. My family did appreciate how very flat the trail was!

El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve

I have also written about this park before, both the Methuselah Tree and the Tafoni Trail. The Methuselah Tree was just as impressive to my family as it was to me, and it's so close to Skyline that it was not problem for them to get to it. This was a huge hit! Although the Tafoni trail is more or less flat (no major gain or loss in elevation), it does have some undulating hills, and this proved to be less accessible for inexperienced hikers and/or people with bad backs and knees. This trail ended up being less of a success, but I still think that it was worth offering to my family as a sample of the kind of hiking that is available in this area.

Edgewood County Park

It was just my mom and me at Edgewood County Park. It was nice to return to this park that I had been to in the fall, because the colors have already started to change. This time we took the Baywood Glen and Franciscan Trails up to the Serpentine Trail before heading back on the Old Stage Road. I think that my mom really liked to see the rolling foothills leading to the bay on one side and the Santa Cruz Mountains on the other side!

Big Basin State Park at Waddell Beach

This trail (part of Big Basin Redwood State Park) is an absolute favorite of mine (see here and here). It was so nice coming back in the winter, when the greenery was even more lush and the water in the creek was higher than usual. This trail continues to impress, and I think that my mother and brother can agree to that one!

Cowell-Purisima Coastal Trail

This POST trail is a favorite of mine, as I have written about before. I did not start at the south end and hike the three miles this time; rather, my family and I parked at the north end and hiked the very short distance to the look-out point. There we could see whales in the distance, and we accessed a stairway down to the beach. Even though it was late December when we took this hike, the oxalis clover was already starting to bloom. It was the perfect way to end their wonderful trip out here for Christmas!