Articles by Ron Erskine

About Ron Erskine

Ron Erskine is a local outdoors columnist and avid hiker.

Battle of the beach

Long before Martin’s Beach was a battleground pitting a landowner’s purported property rights against the peoples’ right to coastal access, it was simply a destination for surfers and beachgoers. I knew of Martin’s Beach before it became a regular news item, but I had [...]

Whitewater runoff

Plentiful winter rains bring a spring of singular delights: energized creeks, top shelf wildflower displays and green hills that persist through April. As wonderful as our lowland spring has been, it is quaint and timid compared to the cirque du soleil of water shows in Yosemite [...]

FIRST STOP View of the old military hospital within Camp Garrison on the western side of Angel Island also the known as the Ellis Island of the West. Photo By Ron Erskine

A 360 degree seaview

Here is a bit of trivia perfect for a bar bet that will surely win you a free round: From what Bay Area mountain top do you overlook seawater no matter which direction you face? In my footloose single days many years ago when the earth was still mostly molten lava, I lived in a [...]

MOTHER LODE A calendar-worthy scene of flowers carpeting the desert floor reaching into the distance at Anza Borrego Desert State Park in the Colorado Desert.

Desert Bloom

After five years of drought, winter rains doused the southern California deserts this past winter. The result has been a desert wildflower super bloom that has made national news. On average, a special desert spring like this occurs about every ten years. Friends who have made [...]

Coe Park’s Steer Ridge

As the Jim Donnelley Trail gently lifted me above Hunting Hollow, I was grateful to the volunteers at Henry Coe State Park who toiled to build it. Every other path up Steer Ridge is a direct assault up the silly steep slopes that enclose the hollow. Warm morning light dappled [...]

Coe overnight outing

The best thing about Henry Coe State Park is also the most challenging thing. It’s big … really big. Imagine a wild area so vast it could swallow up three San Franciscos. Suppose this huge area had only two year-round entrances that barely pierce its boundary, and there, the [...]

coyote peak view with hikers in foreground

Hikers’ training camp

Preparations for this summer’s Snow Valley Peak Challenge are well underway. This will be the fifth summer that local hikers have joined me on a quest to hike to the top of a Sierra peak. On July 15, we will follow a portion of the Tahoe Rim Trail for a 12 mile round trip hike [...]

Amazing Views on the Trail

Russian Ridge is a crown jewel among the open space preserves strung along Skyline Boulevard atop the San Francisco Peninsula hills. From the preserve parking lot at the top of Page Mill Road, hikers on the Ridge Trail are quickly rewarded with amazing views: the Pacific Ocean, [...]

Chasing Wildflowers

Each winter, outdoor lovers hope the season will bring enough rain to light up fields and hillsides with color. And when conditions align just right, the spring flower show can pop like a bicentennial fireworks display. My crystal ball is no clearer than any other, but a look at [...]

VAST LANDSCAPES Golden Gate National Recreation Area spans 77,000 acres, including miles of beaches from San Mateo County to Marin County.

Traversing the Headlands

From Sweeney Ridge in San Mateo County, where Gaspar de Portolà first saw San Francisco Bay in 1769, to windswept Tomales Point at the very northern tip of Marin County, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) spans a vast distance and a staggering variety of [...]

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