Huddart County Park in Woodside is my most frequent destination for running, but I enjoy it every time and it is one of my favorite places to run and hike. The trails are almost entirely under a lush canopy of redwood and hardwood forest. There are numerous nearby parks for expanded options, including Purissima Creek…
Garland Ranch Regional Park
Garland Ranch Regional Park is a 4,500 acre park near Carmel Valley and the northern end of the Santa Lucia Mountain Range. A variety of landscapes exist, including thick oak woodland, chaparral, grassland, and even a side canyon with redwoods. The canyons are lush and cool while the ridges are exposed and provide spectacular views of…
Skyline Views
The amazing clarity continued another day so on December 24th I went up to Skyline Blvd. with hopes of seeing clear vistas. The first stop was the summit of Windy Hill for 360 degree views including the Pacific Ocean and Bay Area. Next was a trail run including Sanborn County Park and Castle Rock State…
Mount Tamalpais Sunset
I have wanted to see a sunset from 2,571 foot Mount Tamalpais for awhile. On December 23rd I had the opportunity to view evening light from the summit of Mount Tam and sunset from near Rock Springs. A northwest wind resulted in amazing clarity over the Bay Area all the way down to the Silicon…
Salt Point and Sonoma Coast State Parks
[Note: A more recent trip to the Sonoma Coast with more photography here] Salt Point State Park is located about 2 hours north of the Golden Gate Bridge on the sparsely populated Sonoma Coast. The park features a rugged coastline and woodlands with an interesting mixture of redwoods, bishop pine, Douglas fir, oaks, and hardwoods…
2009 Adventure Run Recap
A recap of Adventure Runs in 2009 in chronological order: Thompson Peak: (June 17th) Located in the rugged Trinity Alps region of the Klamath Mountains, this climb entailed passing through the rugged glacier-carved Canyon Creek drainage with granite cliffs, waterfalls, and lovely alpine lakes. Mount Sill: (July 9th) Stellar views from the summit (known as…
Panoramas!
Since the Facebook albums linked to in my previous post are essentially useless for viewing panoramas (because they come out so tiny you can’t see anything), here are some panoramas from last week. Click on the image to see a larger version. My favorite photos from each location are forthcoming in future posts and I…
Lots of Photos!
Over the past couple days I visited Salt Point State Park, the Sonoma Coast, Mount Tamalpais State Park, and several parks along Skyline Blvd. I watched two amazing sunsets, one on Mount Tamalpais and the other on Borel Hill in Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve. This flurry of activity was spurred by sunny skies and…
Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve
Sierra Azul is the largest preserve in the Midpenninsula Regional Open Space District covering over 17,000 acres of rugged and steep terrain (map). The region is on the east side of the Santa Cruz Mountains so the vegetation consists primarily of chaparral, bay trees, and oak woodland. The preserve is largely undeveloped and the trails…
Mountain Photography Highlights Slideshow
I have too much free time these days so I made a mountain photography highlights slideshow of some of my favorite mountain photos over the past five years. Unfortunately, I could not include some photos that are located on my old computer in Sammamish (I need high quality for the video), but I will add…
Leor Pantilat's Adventures