You have to earn the privilege of enjoying a Phleger Estate hike. Just getting to the best part of it — a sublime grove of redwoods along the Raymundo and Mount Redondo trails — requires a two-mile out-and-back, either from…
San Mateo County Parks
About time to check out Russian Ridge
by tom • April 10, 2009 • 1 Comment
Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve is mostly open, hilly, breezy terrain, but around this time of year it turns into wildflower central. Midpeninsula Open Space Authority, which manages the park, has a bunch of events coming up at Russian Ridge:…
Final Hikes column: Pescadero Creek County Park
by tom • July 21, 2008 • 1 Comment
This’ll be the last one I do for the San Jose Mercury News. Tucked into a remote section of the Santa Cruz Mountains south of La Honda, the park is one of three grouped nearby. The other two – Sam…
Another hike at Pescadero Creek County Park
by tom • July 7, 2008 • 4 Comments
I covered a slice of Pescadero Creek a couple weeks ago but I knew I’d have to come back. The park delights my inner wannabe social historian — mercilessly logged by previous generations, now hiked by few who realize how…
Pescadero Creek County Park, a first hike
by tom • June 23, 2008 • 3 Comments
Add Pescadero Creek County Park to your must-hike list, if it isn’t there already. It’s remote, quiet, full of ambitious young redwoods and a smattering of really old ones that, oddly enough, survived the steam-powered saws of outrageous fortune. Pescadero…
Latest Hikes column: Huddart County Park
by tom • June 19, 2008 • 0 Comments
In this morning’s Mercury News: Huddart County Park, built on a Santa Cruz Mountains hillside west of Woodside, is better known for family reunions and Fourth of July barbecues than hikes. The racket of car engines and rowdy kids takes…
Hiking the Phleger Estate
by tom • June 2, 2008 • 3 Comments
Whoever the Phleger’s were, they had fine taste in terrain. The Phleger Estate, now safely in the hands of the National Parks Service, has some of the best trails through redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It’s very remote —…
Off to hike at Phleger Estate
by tom • June 1, 2008 • 0 Comments
The Estate is the the national parks property next to Huddart Park. Here’s a profile of a ranger who used to work there. Sandwiched between Huddart County Park in Woodside and the San Francisco Watershed land to the north, the…
Huddart County Park: Made in the shade
by tom • May 26, 2008 • 4 Comments
You’re not going to need a lot of sunscreen at Huddart County Park. Not on the trails, that is. The park has several open areas for picnics, volleyball and garden-variety goofing off. It also has sites that can be reserved…