Ask any volunteer at Henry W. Coe State Park who has spent time in the visitor center what most visitors are looking for, and the answer will be the same: “We’d like to go on a short hike, maybe a couple hours, nothing arduous.” Ask those same volunteers for the [...]

In December 2012, I wrote this in my “Getting Out” column: “Each new year, we resolve to lose weight, exercise more, or make some other pledge of self-improvement that usually withers and dies before January is gone. But sometimes, if the challenge has enough allure, and [...]

Imagine our south Santa Clara Valley before the Gold Rush. It was not unusual to see scores of grizzly bears in a single day. Pronghorn and tule elk regularly browsed beside tule marshes and wetlands. Deer foraged beneath a forest of valley oaks evenly spaced across the valley [...]

Living in the San Francisco Bay Area is a mixed bag. The comings and goings of eight million residents lead to crowding and congestion that can test the limits of patience. But we are blessed to be surrounded by more open space than any metro area in the nation. Time in the [...]

The browning of our hills is underway. Spring is fading, and summer is on the way. If you are not ready to give up cool day hikes among blooming wildflowers, there are places to go where spring lingers. Mount Diablo is one. Mount Diablo is one of the Bay Area’s most [...]

We tell ourselves that the world’s scenic wonders and special wildlife are somewhere else—some exotic location far, far away. Certainly, there are exciting things to see in distant places, but does our longing for wonders elsewhere close our eyes to the ones right in [...]

There are days when the prospect of another walk on a trail you have trod many times before doesn’t have the allure. It is a lovely trail, but you know it like the back of your hand. So, the hiking shoes stay in the closet, and you stay on the sofa. One way to add a bit of [...]