After scoring our fire tower lookout overnight in January (remember, sleeping in a fire tower in California requires much of the planning ahead), I continued my research and found a hike that ended with a fire tower AND had a couple of campsites located not too far from the trailhead. We quickly added on another…
OK. This post is not quite Bay Area-centric. It’s Northern California, but close enough that Bay Area families could head out for a weekend to this locale. You may or may not know that I am a huge fan of the Google. I love looking up new places to go, and Fire Tower Lookouts have…
Oh, this little park. If you hail from anything other than the micro-local (like you live within 5 miles), it’s possible you have never heard of this park. And yet, it’s a perfect place to come hiking and outdoorsing with children. Kennedy Grove is off San Pablo Dam Rd, between Richmond and Orinda, with just…
Just as I promised you! Another post combining trails, views, and a kid-friendly watering hole! This time, it’s even DOG-friendly! Miller-Knox is one of the best little East Bay Regional Parks you’ve never heard about, unless you’re from Richmond. And even then, you might not be familiar with it. However, this little gem of a…
Many moons ago, when I was internationally traveling as a single person (in other words, cheaply), I was struck with the joy of hiking to a eatery (pub, mountain hostel, etc), having a good lunch, and then continuing on my merry way again. Because much of the open space in the United States has strict restrictions against…
Last year, we made reservations in Point Reyes at Sky Camp, a mere 1.4 miles from the trail head. We figured it would be a good opportunity for the then-3 year old to rather slowly get herself to the campsite on her own power. However, that was one of the weekends that it absolutely poured.…
When I was growing up, my parents took us backpacking in the Sierras every summer. We usually base camped at a lake, and as people familiar with Sierra lakes know, many of them are in basins carved out by glaciers. This means that quite a few Sierra lakes involve a tough climb during the last…
We’ve talked about how much we love #CitizenScience on this blog before. And it’s true. We do. We participated in the Northern California v. Southern California citizen species identification challenge (hope they’re doing it again this year…) and in this current political climate, we can’t do enough to promote science, if you ask us. The…
After a fairly long hiatus, we’re back with more Bay Area outside adventures! Mare Island is one of the most exciting finds I’ve had in a while. I found it while scouring Hipcamp for new Bay Area camping adventures I did not know about (yes, I’m weird like that), and booked for December. Normally, December…
This summer, my goal was to get out on the water more- in some kind of watercraft. By the end of the summer, we had done a kayaking excursion, a pedal boat and two canoeing days- pedal boat and canoe with children. Our big winner out of this sampling menu was canoeing on San Pablo…
Bay Area Families Outside 