#74 San Pedro Valley County Park, Pacifica

Have you ever been to Hawaii? I went for the first time this July to Oahu to visit my fabulous friends Ry and Beth. They were really great, and took the time to show me lots of the natural sites. Hawaii was unlike anything I had seen previously; it has a stunning natural beauty. And if you visit San Pedro Valley County Park in Pacifica and do the Brook Falls Loop, you will be reminded of Hawaii and feel the same awe and appreciation of the natural world that Hawaii evokes.


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On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day I drove down to Pacifica to do this hike and see if I could catch a glimpse of the 175 foot waterfall there. It only flows in winter, which is the rainy season here in the Bay Area. The hike consists of a 3 mile loop up and around a little mountain.

The park starts off at a pretty picnic area in a valley.

It then proceeds up through a mix of eucalyptus and probably native trees.

The first leg up the mountain was the sunny side.
After about 20 minutes of hiking up through this pretty forest, the scene opens up.

It was strikingly beautiful at the top, with hills looming tall and close.

Unfortunately, the waterfall wasn't flowing very much, although I could hear some splashing. The waterfall is the central crack in the picture above. Apparently it needs a really good rain to flow.

As I proceeded on I was treated to a most excellent surprise. The bushes that you can see in the bottom of the picture above are covered in flowers and positively infested with hummingbirds! I love hummingbirds!

Hummingbirds are very territorial, so when I started to walk through their bushes I could hear their piercing little cheeps from all directions, and one male started flying near my head to check me out. He had a gorgeous ruby-throat, and he's in the picture below. See if you can spot him.

I spent a little while enjoying the hummingbirds, and then proceeded up a bit more to the foggy side of the mountain. A mist started to materialize, and then it thickened, and I could just barely feel it on my face. Lovely. What a sense of adventure as I ran down through the misty eucalyptus.

I really enjoyed this brief hike. It took about an hour. I liked it so much that I in fact came back a few days later and brought a friend. On that day it wasn't foggy, and I could see fabulous views looking out over the town of Pacifica and over the magnificent Pacific itself.

After my hike on the first day I checked out the beach and the pier. There were LOTS of people surfing, perhaps 50. And people were out on the pier fishing. It was exciting to walk way out above the powerful surf.

I would definitely recommend this hike to anyone looking to get out of the city for a bit and experience some natural beauty. It's only about 20 minutes outside of SF!

#77 El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve

It's been almost two weeks since the last time I got out to do a hike, and high time! I spent most of New Year's weekend laying around at Chez Commanda while watching Star Trek and eating ice cream. On Sunday I applied for jobs and then decided to go to the gym, but when I got to my car, Alack! The battery was dead. My neighbor jumped it for me, and it started right up, so then I drove down 280 for a while to charge it up.

Since I didn't get to go to the gym yesterday, and since I had discovered where highway 280 is, I decided it was definitely time for another hike from my book. I decided to head down the peninsula and check out the El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve.

I did the Tafoni and Fir Trail loop as suggested. This allows one to visit all the highlights of the area, including the awesome Tafoni formation, a pretty vista point, chaparral, a creek, and giant redwoods.

I had a dream about mountain lions last night, and then saw this sign at the trailhead. Unfortunately, I didn't see any mountain lions to FIGHT BACK against.

The trail gets off to a pretty start:

It's readily apparent that many of these trails are a favorite of mountain bikers. This makes the trail extra muddy at times, so I was glad I had worn my trail sneakers. Some of the fire road trails are great for running as well, but others would be too precarious.

I was intrigued by the steam coming off of this stump.

Next, I made my way on to the tafoni.

Tafoni is sandstone that has eroded in a cool way to form lattice-like structures and other neat formations. The second image on the wikipedia page I linked to is a picture of the tafoni I visited today. It's a lot sexier in that pic than in my iPhone pics below. The tafoni was huge! <3 Geology <3

After the tafoni I continued down the trail until I got to the creek trail. The roundtrip total for this hike is around 5–7 miles (the book and the trail map seem to differ). The creek trail was very pretty, and there are lots of beautiful redwoods. I couldn't really see the creek, however.

At this point it was about 3 in the afternoon and I had had only 350 calories and very little water. I had been hoping to find a convenience store on my way, but there is nothing out that way. One of the things I love about San Francisco is how easy it is to quickly get out of the city and feel like you're in the country. But today that worked against me as I hiked for 3 hours without food. So for a lot of the Creek Trail I was thinking about what I would eat when I was done. Don't get me wrong though, the creek trail had its charms.

I love chaparral, and was excited to finally start climbing up into it, knowing that this meant I was closer to food. And to the vista point! I could finally see the ocean! Or was it the sky? The horizon was very difficult to discern.

After the wonderful view I quickly descended down and found my way back to my car. I had a great time on the hike, and it was very beautiful. How excellent is it to be able to enjoy a green, lovely forest in the middle of winter? The temperature was about 50 degrees, the sun was out in parts, and the forest was largely my own. Gorgeous. I would definitely return to show a friend the tafoni and the view.

And don't worry, I got to eat, finally. I hit up Rainbow Pizza and Tasty Treats in the Crystal something plaza in San Mateo. Yum! I still need more water though. I always do.