When people come to visit in the SF Bay Area, they often want to see redwoods. The iconic place to go is Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County north of San Francisco, which is amazing, but it has gotten crowded and difficult to park there.
There are others, around Lake Tahoe:
Or on the peninsula in Woodside and Portola Valley:
Even in Los Altos, the next town over from Mountain View where I live, there is a small redwood grove:
And in Sunnyvale town, or on Sunnyvale’s Sunken Gardens golf course where squirrels play:
Walking among the redwoods, even some closer to home, brings a feeling of peace and even enlightenment.
Now there is going to be a new park for more people to enjoy: “Silicon Valley has a new redwoods park, groundbreaking Tuesday,” from the San Jose Mercury News, by Paul Rogers.
It is known as the Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve, and sits in the hills west of Highway 17 across from Lexington Reservoir. From 1934 to 1969, the land was the site of Alma College, a Jesuit campus. Now trails and amenities such as parking lots are being built for more access. There is a growing tension between preservation of wild open spaces and public access as California’s population increases. But I believe that projects like these are the best chance for balancing those needs.
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A Thousand Finds 
That is an initiative that will help the trees and the people. The pictures are lovely. I hope to see them one day. Thanks for joining #WATWB
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I wanted to go to the John Muir park a couple of years ago, but saw all the info on difficult parking. Still, we drove from Seattle to Monterey and were able to drive and hike through a couple of redwood forests near Klamath. We did it during the week, so it was quiet, which made the experience more profound.
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Hi Karen – it’s great they’ve turned Bear Creek into a park for Redwoods to be able to grow and thrive … we all need areas where we can escape into nature … must be wonderful – lovely photos – cheers Hilary
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