Author Archives: AlphaRoaming

Pacheco State Park is not very well known in the California Bay Area. It’s just a bit southeast of the “slightly less unknown” and much bigger Henry Coe State Park. It’s just 5 miles east of the “Bell Station” entrance … Continue reading →

How many folks in the San Francisco Bay Area have heard of the highest local waterfall “Murietta Falls”, or the “Ohlone Wilderness”? If it was not a grueling hike to get there, I think “everyone” would have heard about it. … Continue reading →

Ano Nuevo State Park, on the coast about an hour south of San Francisco, is an impressive breeding ground for the HUGE Northern Elephant Seal. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=523 The seals come ashore from December to March to have their babies, then mate … Continue reading →

I was looking, once again, for an interesting new place to explore in Silicon Valley and still get home by late afternoon. One thing high on my “to do” list was to search for a relatively unknown tafoni formation, that … Continue reading →

A very brief post to help me remember what RAIN and MUD looks like! There’s hope in those gray skies. Let’s go out and play! Back on February 9, 2014, in Silicon Valley we received our third significant rain since … Continue reading →

The California drought has lessened somewhat this past week in Silicon Valley. We were at zero rain in January and our total rainfall was under 20% of normal for the season. On Groundhog Day, “Phil” saw his shadow, the skies … Continue reading →

Once-upon-a-time I befriended the brains behind a loose knit group of hikers called the “Rambling Wrinklies” (seriously!). Dinesh Desai http://dineshdesai.info/ made me a “junior” member of his group of retirees who hike every friday in the Silicon Valley area. How … Continue reading →

The debate over which “user group” should be allowed to use what trails is a seemingly endless debate, especially here in the San Francisco / Silicon Valley area. We have enormous amounts of protected space, both close to highways housing … Continue reading →

On January 12th, I decided to enjoy yet another beautiful “Juneuary” ™ day in drought-stricken northern California. I was looking for some great scenery and a long climbing workout on my bicycle. I decided also to check on a particular … Continue reading →

Back on December 15th I went on a moderate length hike in the “wilds” of East San Jose. Joseph Grant County Park (http://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/JosephDGrant.aspx) is located on the road up to the more famous Mt Hamilton and the Lick Observatory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Hamilton_(California)). … Continue reading →