We usually spend Easter weekend in one of two places: Carrizo Plain (in good wildflower years) or Lava Beds National Monument. This year we decided that a visit to the…
The list of local parks that I haven’t had a chance to explore is shrinking. One of its final members was Pacheco State Park, a nearly 7000 acre park west of San Luis Reservoir on the south side of highway 152. It is the southernmost parkland on the Diablo Range before Pinnacles National Park, and shares its land with grazing cattle and a windmill farm.
On Saturday morning I set out with two goals in mind: 1) explore Pacheco State Park and 2) get in a nice long hike. The trails in Pacheco are numerous and one can put together hikes from easy to difficult. Our chosen route would take us around the perimeter of the park and over Spikes Peak, an estimated 15.5 miles and ~3400 ft of elevation gain.
On Sunday I headed down to Rancho Cañada del Oro south of San Jose to get in a nice 13 mile hike and check out the wildflowers. Although it’s been a dry winter I was hoping that a little recent rain would help nudge the wildflowers along. They are out, but it is a disappointing season in both quantity and quality. I found a nice variety but they were few and far between. The most common wildflowers I saw were milk maids, Indian Warrior, Hounds Tongue, and shooting stars. A surprising crop of star lily kept me entertained, and it looks like the poppies are about to come in. It is by no means a bumper crop this year, but I do really love local spring hikes when there are wildflowers lining the trail.
Mt St Helena towers above the northern end of the approximately 30 mile long Napa Valley. Its east peak is the high point of Napa County, though the high point…
Yesterday I went out for a hike in Santa Teresa County Park with the dual goals of 1) getting some exercise and 2) checking out the current status of wildflowers. If you’ve been following this blog for a while you probably know that wildflowers are one of my favorite subjects to photograph, and every spring I get to start my ‘collection’ anew. The first week of February is still a bit early for wildflowers but nevertheless, I wanted to see if anything was blooming to set a baseline for the upcoming months. I found a few flowers, and I know that with the Shooting Star and Manzanita, other flowers will soon follow. Here’s the short list of wildflowers I spotted.
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The Jim Donnelly trail was just like every other trail in Henry Coe, climbing steeply to Wilson Ridge. Trails like this are strenuous on the way up and rough on the knees on the way down. Whoever built the trails in Coe had never heard the word “switchback”. Several trails climb the steep hillsides to Wilson Ridge (Steer Ridge, Middle Steer Ridge, Spike Jones), and none of them are easy. Someone finally managed to apply some common sense to one of the trails, and it has been rebuilt and rerouted with well graded switchbacks. It took about 2 years, but last summer the new Jim Donnelly Trail was opened much to the appreciation of mountain bikers, equestrians, and hikers alike.
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Prior to the Columbia event we were asked to choose an activity for Saturday. Our options were yoga, mountain biking, or hiking of various difficulty levels. I had a moment…
Trailmaster Peak (high point on the right) The complete failure of our original Memorial Day Weekend plans ended up being a blessing in disguise. Relocating to the un-stormed-on southern Sierra…
Yesterday was the first day of summer around here. We never had much of a winter, and it seems like mother nature is skipping right over spring and dropping us…