A digital travel diary. · WP v1.08 · Updated
Today, Inna and I explored the beautiful Coyote Hills Regional Park. While Inna has visited the park several times, I have never been there.. . The drive to the park was easy - I took 880 N to Fremont and exited at Dumbarton Bridge, following Patterson Ranch Road to the park. No one manned the park entrance, so we did not have to pay the…
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Today, we decided (despite the slightly drizzly weather) to hike in the beautiful Huddart County Park in San Mateo / Woodside, CA.. . . . Based on recommendations in Alltrails.com, we initially tried to follow the Crystal Springs Trail.. The Crystal Springs Trail is a single track trail that runs down the northern section of the park and connects to several trails in the park.…
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Because of the unusually sizzling California weather (90+ Fahrenheit in October!), we decided to hike at the nearby Villa Montalvo, with significant tree cover on most trails.. . . . Villa Montalvo is located in Los Gatos and usually hosts many arts & theater productions. We used Google Maps to provide driving directions.. . When we arrived, a production of Romeo & Juliet was in…
Read More: Hiking Lookout Trail at Villa Montalvo
We planned to hike some trails near Stinson Beach (Mt. Tamalpais) for a while. While I have hiked Mt. Tamalpais with the Sierra Club in the past, I have never walked the proposed Dipsea Trail.. . The Dipsea Trail is at Highway 1 and Arenal Avenue in Stinson Beach.. . Since our friends ran late, we stopped by the nearby Parkside Cafe for breakfast. We…
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On Labor Day, we explored the beautiful Point Lobos State Natural Reserve and then traveled to Carmel-on-the-Sea for beach activities and lunch.. . . . Surprisingly, the drive to Point Lobos was faster than expected. Reaching Point Lobos took about 80 minutes (instead of the usual 2 hours).. . . . However, when we arrived, the main parking lot at Point Lobos State Reserve was…
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Today, we decided to hike the beautiful Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Santa Cruz, CA.. We have not hiked there for over 15 years and wanted to know what, if anything, has changed.. . The drive to Big Basin Redwoods from San Jose was uneventful. I drove on Highway 85 west, followed by Highway 9, south to 236. The narrow, twisty road was not…
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Today, we decided to explore the beautiful Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. To avoid early morning traffic on Highway 17, we woke up early and headed to the park around 9:00 am.. . It's one of the few California State Parks that allows dogs. Last week, we went to Shoreline and were disappointed to learn that no dogs are allowed, as it's considered a wildlife…
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After our usual delicious breakfast at the Little River Inn in Mendocino, we drove to Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve near Ukiah.. . . . . The drive from Mendocino to Montgomery Woods took over an hour over a twisty 2-lane road with many potholes.. . . . When we arrived, we found a relatively small parking lot but still managed to park our Sienna…
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After breakfast at Best Western, we drove to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Since we moved from Mt. Shasta, we took US-89, approaching Lassen from the north (this road is usually closed during winter).. . Our first stop was at Manzanita Lake. We hiked around the lake, enjoying the beautiful scenery. There were a lot of people kayaking and canoeing. We also saw several people fishing…
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Since we rarely visited Northern California, we explored the hikes and waterfalls around Mt. Shasta. I have often been drawn to Mt. Shasta and Lake Shasta on my way from Sacramento to Portland, Oregon, but I have never stopped.. . We drove from San Jose to Mt. Shasta in the late afternoon. The drive to McCloud (near Mt. Shasta) was uneventful and took about 4.5…
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After seeing the Living Social offer at Briarwood Inn in Carmel, we decided to take the plunge and try it. We enjoy visiting Carmel, which would give us extra time to visit the nearby beautiful Point Lobos State Reserve.. . . . Our room at Briarwood Inn was very nice and clean, and was a good value for the price. It even had two queen…
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We had a wonderful hike at Castle Rock State Park. We saw a few rock climbers scaling various rocks and enjoyed the beautiful greenery.. . According to Wikipedia:. Castle Rock State Park is a state park of California, USA, located along the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It embraces coast redwood, Douglas fir, and madrone forest, most of which has been left in its…
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Today, we visited the beautiful city of Carmel-by-the-Sea and stayed at the excellent L'Auberge Carmel. We stayed there because I found a special deal on Jetsetter.com and wanted to try out this highly rated bed-and-breakfast/hotel.. . . . We stopped by the Patisserie Boissiere for lunch when we got to Carmel. Inna ordered the "French Onion soup," while I ordered the "Spinach, Mushroom, and Swiss…
Read More: Hiking Point Lobos State Reserve