The East Bay mountains are known for their rolling green hills, oak trees, and spring wildflower displays. In the summer they are dry and brown, a constant source of wildfire concern and rattlesnakes. Waterfalls and rocks are not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of this part of California, but it turns out there are some interesting places tucked back in the hills that provide exactly that.
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Toro County Park is a small park to the southwest of Salinas, California. Its primary attraction seems to be the abundant picnic and BBQ areas which attract big groups and…
Believe it or not, there are still a few Bay Area summits I have yet to climb. Until Sunday, Knibbs Knob in the southern Santa Cruz mountains could be counted among those peaks. It’s a short but steep hike, climbing from approximately 1000 ft to 2700 ft in 1.7 miles.
With the new puppy, I didn’t want to be away for too long this weekend, so on Sunday morning I decided it was the perfect time to tag Knibbs Knob. I got to the parking lot at Uvas at 9 am and started off to the trail. It’s a little difficult to find, not being connected to the main attraction of the park, a waterfall loop trail. The hike starts at the gated end of an old road behind a group camp area.
I’ve been in California for fourteen years, and until now Gold Country was simply something standing between me and the mountains. We’d drive through quaint old west towns on our way to the high country, and I’d always tell myself that one day we’d come back to explore. Last weekend was finally the time for that exploration. Over two days, we drove from Sonora to Auburn via the historic highway 49. Along the way we learned a lot about the history of California’s gold rush, explored antique shops, stayed in a ‘haunted’ hotel, and spent a night on the town in one of the bigger remaining cities along the route.
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Rancho Cañada del Oro is an Open Space Preserve just south of San Jose. It is one of my go-to parks for a quick hike since it’s such a short drive for relative solitude. Even on its busiest day you’d never guess you were a 20 minute drive from the 10th largest city in the US! I decided to head there on Sunday morning to get in a couple of hours of hiking in the ‘pineapple express’ – the warm rain that is currently falling over California.
Although I didn’t get the typical sweeping views or blankets of wildflowers, the hike was still beautiful. The lack of views made me look more closely at my immediate environment where I discovered newts, twisting ancient oak trees, and fresh tracks from the large mammals that live in the park.
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If you've ever driven on Highway 5 through Northern California, you know Black Butte. Despite Mt Shasta dominating the view from a distance, when you're in between the two cities…
For our final day in Death Valley during Thanksgiving week, we wanted something a little simpler than the previous day’s climb of Bat Mountain. The Death Valley Buttes fit our criteria perfectly. The Buttes are a semi-isolated set of bumps where the Grapevine and Funeral Mountains meet. Their position in the Valley provides some great views south towards Badwater and west towards the Mesquite Dunes.
Near the town of Death Valley Junction a distinct peak rises from the desert floor. This peak is part of the “Bat Mountain” range, and has always been on my radar due to its interesting profile. Topo maps label Bat Mountain as a smaller bump on the north end of the short range, but the true high point of the range is on the southern end. Furthermore, two peaks are often confused as the high points, and are usually referred to as Bat Mountain (N) and Bat Mountain (S).
The peak with the interesting profile, Bat Mountain (N), is the true high point by a few feet. This is a very infrequently climbed peak and it was difficult to find beta. Fortunately we got just enough that we felt confident enough to spend the day after Thanksgiving hiking to the summit.
Continuing our trend of summiting infrequently climbed peaks, we took off Monday morning to hike Shadow Mountain. The route began from our camp area at the Shadow Mountain Mine and followed old mining roads and eventually the southwest ridge to the summit. It is a rather small and insignificant peak compared to its neighbors Kingston and Clark, and that combined with the bad roads make it a rarely visited summit.
To start out, we followed an old road past the mill building ruins and machinery pads and into the hills that flank Shadow Mountain. We could have driven most of this road, but a large washout about 1/4 mile past the mine site blocked progress by vehicle. No problem – we don’t mind walking!
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