Earlier this month, I had the chance to check out Bear Creek Open Space Preserve in Los Gatos. Up until recently, I didn’t know that this spot existed right off bustling Highway 17. It’s a chunk of land under the care of Midpeninsula Open Space Trust that’s currently not accessible to the public, except by permit.
Big Basin Redwoods State Park is one of my go to hikes when I’m bumming around the Bay Area on the weekends. I never really venture away from the Berry Creek Falls loop though. It’s such a good one.
When my friend Brie vetoed Berry Creek Falls in favor of the Dool-Middle Ridge-Meteor-Sequoia Loop, I was skeptical.
The folks at Arc’teryx Stanford Center asked me to share a few of my favorite Bay Area hikes and nonprofits at their spring launch event. There’s nothing I love more than talking about outdoor adventure, so I happily obliged.
For this roundup, I only wanted to include hikes within an hour of the Bay Area. These are all places you can go and get in mileage but still make it back in time for dinner and drinks with friends.
These are the best Bay Area hikes that I return to time and time again.
I turned 28 on a quiet evening in the Sierra Club Hiker’s Hut. The next morning, we woke up to fog and the slow pitter patter of rain on the wooden hut. Josh had class in the afternoon and I had plans to curl up in bed for a lazy birthday. We packed up all our things to head back home.
Instead of retracing our steps, we opted for the Heritage Grove trail instead.
Nestled deep in the Santa Cruz mountains, down some twisty roads, is my favorite local state park: Portola Redwoods. Creeks, short waterfalls and old growth redwoods are tucked inside this lesser traveled park. The trees aren’t as large as the ones found in nearby Big Basin State Park, but more often than not, you’ll find them in solitude. Weekend obligations kept me in the Bay Area a few weeks ago so I popped over to this park for a bit of solo hiking and mileage in preparation for long missions this summer.