Get ready for an onslaught of new camping posts, dear readers. As we said in the last post, it’s Camping Season 2016, and due to some job-related camping and then adding in some personal trips, this site is going to feature CAMPING ALL THE TIME for the next few weeks. I’m personally convinced that the…
Welp, friends. This is it. Camping Season 2016 is officially upon us. If you are a resident of the Bay Area, you also know that the weather last weekend was delightful and really encouraged getting outdoors. We kicked off Camping Season 2016 with a night in Bothe-Napa State Park and we’re pretty sure it should…
OK. This is not a post about becoming a camping champion with all the latest gear, or about becoming a weeks-long camping champion. This post is about becoming a camping family who can drop the cares of the work week on a dime, leap into the car and head out for some microadventuring on a…
Remember back in December, when we talked about the King Tides, and how YOU, a lowly citizen with no scientific training at all, could contribute to a science project? (Because, #CitizenScience!) Soon, it gets even better: you can contribute to a science project without ever leaving your neighborhood AND show some Bay Area Pride! Mark…
For Spring Break, Bay Area Families Outside took a field trip to the North Coast of California! We recognize that this is not considered the Bay Area, but it’s close enough that it’s a reasonable long weekend trip for Bay Area families. We started our trip with the intention of camping at Patrick’s Point State…
We had grand visions of a post with several options for Spring Break fun. Then all of a sudden, Spring Break is upon us. So that post didn’t happen. Now that some of the local schools are in the midst of Spring Break, the one strong suggestion we are going to make for your Spring Break…
It’s a little silly that we have been writing posts on this blog for four months now and not addressed Wildcat Canyon. We’ve mentioned before that this is our “go-to” trail, the place we spend the MOST time outside, the place our daughter has had two of her three birthday parties, the place that we…
This past weekend, the youngest hiker and I partook in an “Animal tracking for families” workshop at Lake Merritt, put on by the California Center for Natural History and Oakland City Parks and Recreation. Participants met at Lake Merritt and spent two hours learning how to look carefully at the world around us to begin…
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…
“The Earth Moved Under Your Feet… Resting beneath your feet are the ancient remains of a volcano that erupted 10 million years ago. Strange animals once roamed here, like long-necked camels and three-toed horses. Today they are replaced by grazing cattle, deer, and domestic dogs. Slowly, over millions of years, this volcano uplifted, tilted on…
Bay Area Families Outside 