Tamcan-Brushy Peak-West Side Loop

Every time I go for a hike now, I assume that it may very well be the last time for a long time that I will be able to visit a particular park. Indeed, I came home to the news that the California State Park system has closed all of its parks to vehicular traffic. So I do my best to be very much in the present and to savor every detail. It helps me to focus on my hike, to calm my anxiety in this very nerve-wracking time of global pandemic, and to notice the flowers and the birds with even greater clarity.

This trip to Brushy Peak Regional Park was all the more enjoyable for that mentality. I saw so many flowers and heard so many birds. I even saw a coyote!

I began at the parking area and then took the Laughlin Ranch Loop Trail (trailhead is behind the restrooms near the eucalyptus trees). I stayed on the leg of the trail that parallels the creek, so that I could easily pick up the Tamcan Trail. I saw lots of filaree (Erodium cicutarium) and both common fiddleneck (Amsinckia intermedia) and Eastwood fiddleneck (Amsinckia eastwoodiae) on this segment of the trail, as well as really nice outcroppings of both California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) and Succulent lupine (Lupinus succulentus). I could see red tailed hawks circling for prey and red winged blackbirds perching on fence posts and shrubs. I could hear Western meadowlarks even though I never saw one directly. I had expected rain today, but the sun came out instead, and it was so amazing to see everything swimming in the most vibrant of colors. On this leg of the trail, I did not see any other humans at all. I was in heaven!

Once the trail teed into Brushy Peak Loop, I started seeing more people. I veered to the right and then retraced the steps that I took when I did this trail last year, ascending up near the peak to where the outcrops of rocks and trees are. Here, I could hear turkeys gobbling, and when I began my decent back down, I saw a coyote in the distance running across the hill. I got a picture, but he's really only a little blur--the camera lens I had in was a wide angle and I didn't have time to swap out for a zoom lens. Along this part of the hike, I saw both Ithuriel's spear (Triteleia laxa) and blue dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum). I found this part of the hike to be the most frustrating in terms of my ability to maintain social distancing. It was the most crowded part of the park by far, but it also has narrower trails. Most folks were trying their very best to maintain the 6 feet of distance, but it was just harder to do here.

When this trail teed into the West Side Loop Trail, I went to the right to make the steep (but short) climb uphill. I saw more poppies, and then was rewarded with some stellar views of Brushy Peak. The gentle descent back to the parking lot offered nice views of the Livermore Valley, and I was treated to the sounds of the meadow larks singing their hearts out.

The total distance of this loop is 4.75 miles and there is some up elevation change. I think that this trail is appropriate for older kids, but it might be hard to do while carrying a child. It's not manageable for anyone who is pushing a stroller: the trails can get muddy.

I suspect that this park will be closed next week. Although I was one of the only people at the park when I started my hike, the lot was starting to fill up by the time I left. After hearing about the state park system's decision to close all parks to vehicular traffic, I think that the smaller systems will follow suit too. I am very glad that I got in one last hike for the time being, and I will just make a plan to visit this park again in the spring of 2021.