I've been pretty lucky to live in some amazing natural areas since graduating. I barely scratched the surface of all the parks and hiking trails within an hour of me in California, much less in my own backyard. The Marin Headlands, the national park that my house was in, has a ton of hiking/biking/horse-back riding trails. I got to know some of them quite well as they were a part of my daily commute to the office. However, there were a ton of trails that I never even got a chance to explore.
On one of my last days out there, I woke up to see a "weather alert" on my iPhone. I found this amusing because most of the country was getting pelted with snow and meanwhile, we were enjoying sunny, 60-degree weather. The alert, however, was for dangerous "wave conditions." I decided to check this out, while also exploring some of the unexplored trails in the Headlands.
Here are some of the photos I took of the waves at Rodeo Beach:
From the beach, I hiked up the trail towards Hill-88 and Tennessee Valley. As with all the trails in the headlands, this included some steep climbs, and all sorts of discarded World War II military apparatuses. I never did my homework regarding the human history of the area, despite the fact that we were counting hawks atop an old bunker, one of the many signs around the Headlands of the military history. On this hike, I passed a big (HUGE) gun, obviously out of use, but as a demonstration of the size of some of the artillery that was used in this area.
One of the banding blinds was located on a hill facing "Hill 88." I spent many a day, staring at that hill, and during this hike, I finally got a chance to check it out. What I found was a ton of abandoned buildings, again probably originally of military use, but now primarily serving as canvases for graffiti artists.
Of course, I couldn't go for a hike without paying a little attention to the avian life around. In addition to some of the usual culprits, I was pleased to see quite a few Anna's Hummingbirds. While eating my morning snack, I also watched an American kestrel hunting along one of the fences on Hill 88.
White-crowned Sparrow
Anna's Hummingbird
From the top of Hill 88, I hiked down a pretty steep trail for more than a mile into Tennessee Valley. It was a pretty quick hike from there to the Tennessee Valley beach.
Looking back up the hill I'd come down, I decided that I'd have to try an alternate route back to my house - it was pretty muddy and would have been tough attempting to climb back up that trail. The trail I took ended up giving me an awesome view of some of the nearby cities and their bizarre roads and houses, built right into the hillsides.
The final descent took me into Gerbode Valley, a trail that I'd hiked once before, to listen for owls with a group of visitors.
Like I said, I was pretty lucky to have had a chance to live in the Marin Headlands, a beautiful natural area (and amazing that it's so close to such a large city!) I will miss being able to hike around the lagoon, looking at ducks and herons, falling asleep at night to the sound of great horned owls and coyotes, and following ravens and a white-tailed kite to work on my bike each day.
No comments:
Post a Comment