Return to Cogswell Marsh at Hayward Shoreline

It has been a rough couple of weeks in the Bay Area. After a lightning storm on the evening of August 16, fires sparked up all around the Bay. Many state parks and regional parks were closed, either because the parks were actively burning or because the area remained under a red-flag warning. In the East Bay, only a handful of shoreline parks remained open.

My brother was in town this past Saturday, and it is quite possible that this is the only time I will get to see any family at all this year. Although we had very limited options about what we could do and where we could go, I was glad that one of the parks that remained open was the lovely Hayward Regional Shoreline Park.

We started from the parking lot on Winton Avenue and then made the easy, flat 2.8-mile lollipop trail to Johnson's Landing and Cogswell Marsh. The last time I was here was during a foggy, cool November day. It was really different to see the park in the dry smoke. I could not see views of the city of San Francisco across the bay, but there were still lots of birds and flowers to make the hike interesting. Particularly striking on this hike was a varietal of gumweed called coastal gumweed or San Francisco gum plant (Grindelia hirsutula var. maritima, link). The wind from off the bay make it so that the smoke was not too bad.

I was really glad to get to see my brother, but it was a little scary for him to be driving towards the fires. Since his visit, the weather has turned cooler and wetter, and the fires are slowly getting better contained. The EBRPD has reopened parks (with the exception of parks that are either actively burning or that were already closed due to COVID-19).

It's been a hard year, but hopefully things will start to get better soon.