We’ve been quiet on this blog for a while, it’s true. While our lives have not been excessively filled with outdoor adventures, we do want to share a winter camping gem that we visited twice this year. Yurts, tents, trails, crazy ruins, even crazier deer– could you ask for more when camping with kiddos? Mount…
Wintertime can be a warm, cozy time to cuddle up with a good book near a warm (only on good air quality day) fire but let’s be real, that’s more likely to happen in the book you are reading than on a rainy winter day in the Bay Area with an extremely active six year…
Remember that last post about getting places no one had ever been? This is not that post. You will not be alone on this hike. You won’t feel like you’re exploring uncharted wilderness. But you will find yourself on an almost perfect-length hike (with many options to make it longer) in a stunningly beautiful spot…
First off, Portola Redwoods State Park is no secret. It’s a beautiful park set deep in the redwoods, on the Peninsula. Towering redwoods, fat banana slugs, shady nooks, hikes of varying difficulty– Portola Redwoods has it all, and you definitely need to reserve in advance. However, we found out this October that there are some…
Well, it’s time to start thinking about fall or winter outdoor options again, Bay Area Families! I know that sounds crazy, but we just booked a couple of weekends, and it looks like lots of the more popular spots (looking at you, Samuel P. Taylor, or even the lesser-known Portola Redwoods) are already booking up…
Two things are going to sound strange about this post- one, it’s about the seasons we are definitely not in at the moment- fall and winter. Two, it’s going to encourage you to plan for the rainy season. (Let’s hope that planning for the rainy season will guarantee that we get one!) Why, you ask,…
How well do you know the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District? I’m going to guess not as well as you SHOULD. (If you remember from this post, they also have introductory geocaching hikes for families!) We live in the East Bay, so it’s rather a haul to get there, but trails abound! Today’s focus is…
If you have been out on the trails lately, you might have noticed that certain of them are flanked by fungi. I do not claim to be a mushroom expert, but I do encourage you to get out soon and look for some of these fantastic growths. (Let me be clear– I am not encouraging you…
My Bay Area families! It’s raining! For the first time in, well, YEARS. This means our creeks are changing, and it’s a perfect time to get outside and find your local creek. In the next few weeks, the creeks will be swelling and shrinking– almost on a daily basis. This is the time to find…
One of my favorite things about living in the Bay Area is that there seems to be an ever expanding selection of Open Spaces, Preserves, Parks, and Land Trusts that continually pop up on our radar. Our latest discovery was San Geronimo Valley’s Roy’s Redwoods, which is one of the Marin County Park’s Open Space Preserves.…
Bay Area Families Outside 