Montara Lighthouse and Beach

At the end of May I went to Montara Lighthouse to take a few pictures. Sadly, neither weather nor my camera cooperated, and the photos did not turn out as interesting as I had hoped for.

I slept at the Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel, which I would definitely recommend. It is a very nice small hostel located in an amazing location, directly at the coast, with its own private beach, so what's not to love about it! If you get a chance, check it out. Be aware, however, that if you want to get a private room, you need to book it several months in advance.

Hostel's private beach:

High tide:

The lighthouse:

Purisima Creek Redwoods

On Sunday Anne and Sebastian took me hiking to Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve. I'm proud to report that even though it was cold and drizzling, we still opted for one of the longest hikes in the park.

By stitching together the Whittemore Gulch, North Ridge, Craig Britton and Purisima Creek trails, we created a 9.1 mile (14.6 km) long loop trail that took us around 4h to complete. The hike was relatively level and it definitely did not feel as long as it was.

I'm sure that on a clear day, the views from the upper part of the trail would be spectacular, as even despite the low-hanging clouds we could occasionally see the ocean.

I'm pretty sure that I'll repeat this hike some time soon, as even with the limited views and rain, it was very beautiful and peaceful.


Rain makes forests even more beautiful:

San Bruno Mountain - Summit Loop Hike

Today Della, Louis and I went hiking in San Bruno Mountain State and County Park.

We went for a 3.1 mile hike on the Summit Loop Trail. The trail climbs to the summit very gradually and there are good views of SF, Sutro Tower, Cow Palace, etc., both from the summit and also along the way. During 2h that it took us to complete the hike we met only two other people, which was very nice. Still, there are so many other even more beautiful places in the Bay Area that I do not think I will be going back to this park anytime soon.

Here are a few pics that I took today:

Berry Creek Falls

At the end of our honeymoon Anil and I decided that upon coming back to SF, no matter how busy with work and other things, we would go hiking once a week. The plan is to at least find time to go for a short, half a day hike, but preferably to try to go for a full day hike every other weekend. On top of that once a month we decided to try to go for a 2-3-day long trip.

In a spirit of that resolution the past Sunday we went hiking to Berry Creek Falls in Big Basin Redwood SP. Luckily, Anne and Sebastian agreed to go with us, otherwise, I fear, we wouldn't have woken up early enough to make it as it takes around 1.5h to get to the park from SF and the hike itself is another 5-6h.

There are several different options on getting to and back from the falls. We opted for a loop made out of "Skyline to the Sea" and "Sunset" trails. It is 10.5 miles long with around 1'500ft elevation change. I found the hike to be very pleasant as it is very green and leads through the heart of redwood forrest. The waterfalls were nice too, but even without them it would be a very nice hike. In a nutshell, I would definitely strongly recommend it and sometime in the future I am going to repeat it.

On the sign below "Berry Cr Falls, 6 hours, round trip" somebody carved with a knife "or until dead". Hikers have an interesting sense of humor.

We promised to this banana slug that if it poses nicely, it would be featured on my blog:

A 70-foot Berry Creek waterfall:

Silver Falls:

Upper Golden Falls:

Lower Golden Falls:

Beautiful green trail: