Exploring San Francisco's Natural Side

Purple and Yellow wildflowers

  What can I say? San Francisco was absolutely beautiful during our spring visit this Easter. Heidi and I scheduled a four day layover here to visit with friends in the Bay area on our way east from Hawaii. I wanted to head out to some of the hiking trails to get views of the coastline and the Golden Gate bridge, and was surprised to get blooming wildflowers and sunshine as an unexpected bonus.

Heidi in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

  The first spot we hit was a place called Lands End. This is where the San Francisco Bay dumps out into the Pacific Ocean. A famous surfing beach called Ocean Beach is nearby, there are hiking and biking trails along the cliffs, and you get several beautiful views of the Golden Gate Bridge looking back towards the city.

  The wildflowers were in full bloom as we looked over the old baths and the famous Cliff House. Purples and yellows accentuated our first views of the Bay area. This was the beginning and ending of our trail.

Cathedral of Redwoods

  For our next trek we drove up to the very busy Muir Woods National Park. I had been here way back in 2006 but apparently I had forgotten just how magnificent the redwoods were here. We had to jockey for a parking space since the beautiful spring weather had enticed many city people out of their winter slumbers. Once we were deep into the trails though the mobs slowly cleared and it felt like it was just the two of us walking through a tree created cathedral. We will soon be following in the footsteps of John Muir up to Alaska to marvel in the glaciers and nature that he made the world aware of in the late 1800's.