Crown of the Continent

"My left side – it's my best side."



"Hurry up with the photo! It's cold out here."

The Colombian ground squirrel was shivering as I was snapping its picture.

Well, the cold air was not my fault. We were, after all, in National Glacier Park in Montana.



Where even the goats wear a thick coat of fur.



It was a bit chilly. But how can you quibble about a few bits of Fahrenheit, when you have views like these:

















Where the flowers look like paintbrushes.



And the rocks provide the perfect color palette.





While nature sculpts art into stones and tree trunks:





The views were big, but little details were just as rewarding if you paid attention. For example, spot the curly-horned ram here:



How about prairie dogs (why do they not look like dogs at all?):



The aftermath of the Robert Fire of 2003 provided us with the unique opportunity of walking through a young forest where new pine trees barely came up to the waist:



We supplemented our hikes with a ride on the legendary red bus. I highly recommend it.



Especially if you get Norman as your guide:



Not only did he regale us with the history the park, he also led us straight to a black bear!



Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the bear.

Count on a return visit, Montana.

Hike at Squaw Valley

These are pictures of cairns I took during our hike at Squaw Valley. At one section of the hike, it was mostly boulders, so there was no visible path. We relied on these small rock formations which were built by some kind soul(s) to mark the trail.

Shoreline Park

With the hot spell and the fasting (14 down and 15 to go!), we have not explored any new hikes recently. But being cooped up indoors is not an option. Despite the heat, I went for a walk at Shoreline Park. It is close to home and is one of my favorite walks. No, not because it is completely flat (well, that is one of the reasons) but there is open space for miles. As someone who grew up in a concrete jungle, I just want to grab all that elbow room, stuff it in my bag and release it whenever I am in cramped quarters again. Here, I can see the Santa Cruz mountains in the west, the Diablo range in the east and the air above in the middle. Paved trails snake through the estuary which provides a habitat for plenty of shorebirds. Egrets, wrens, sandpipers and schools of pelicans. So I can go my own and not be alone.

Climbing up that hill - a city hike

Not long ago, if you asked me to join you for a city hike, I would have assumed you meant a marathon window shopping session. But yesterday, we did a true city hike with our friends J & H. Even though we went up to the city in part to escape the heat, the sun was as relentless. Sunblock was not optional. We parked at the foot of Telegraph Hill. Armed with a print-out of stairways of San Francisco, we walked up Vallejo Street to begin our hike of the Filbert Steps. (the youtube video provides the appropriate soundtrack while you read this - Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush - don't you just love her?)



That's us (minus me) at the start of our first steps. This is a very pretty walk up. We saw gorgeous houses on both sides; some had small common areas with a modest grill set-up and chairs. But what you notice first was the well-maintained gardens. The carefully pruned cascade of greens made the place look like it was an abundant garden with some houses at the edge rather than just houses with gardens. Once you reach the top of the stairs and look back, a view of the Bay Bridge greets you.





See the sign at the bottom right corner of the picture above? It says "Stairs to Coit Tower". So the steps we had just taken were leading us to more steps. A beautiful view at the top but a few too many tourists.





The Greenwich Steps (above) were entertaining. The gardens of the homes were peppered with kitsch - a tiger, a frog and a parking meter!



But my favorite is the actual Filbert Steps. Living in one of the houses must feel like you were living in a tree house. The wooden steps snaking along the homes enhances the metaphor. Together, the gardens look like a jungle - tall trees, unruly shrubs and a wild parrot colony! J told us they had just seen parts of a documentary about the parrots so I looked it up. You can read about it here. We didn't see the whole colony although it sounded like they were all there and chatting at the same time. We saw a few pairs and I did manage to take a picture of a parrot using the zoom function of my camera. Apologies for the over-saturation of the picture below but it was dark in the shade of the trees and I want the parrot to be visible.



We were entertained further when we met a couple who used to live in one of the houses. We were curious how they carried bulky groceries bags or moved appliances. They told us that they stopped shopping at the supermarkets, started ordering groceries online and made sure they tipped really well. But the delivery guys still hated them. Appliances - the stores charge $1 per step for delivery charges! And of course, the novelty of the parrots wears out real fast when you are subjected to their daily trillings. But it's all worth it for the luxury of opening your front door to an oasis of green (traipsing camera-totting city hikers excepted).

Where the sky and the lake are the same color

stumpy meadows lake


our campsite at stumpy meadows

We hiked the trail to a waterfall a couple of miles from our campsite. It's 5.6 mile loop trail and appears to be a really popular spot even though it is not well-publicized because you have cross over private land to get to the waterfall. There isn't much shade which can be arduous during a heatwave. But the walk is well-worth it. It is beautiful spot. We had our lunch by the water. If you have your swimsuit on, you can go for a swim for some relief from the heat just the like boys in the pictures below did. They were having so much fun jumping into the water and sliding down the rocks. The scenes reminded me a little of "Lord of the Flies".

"Maximum returns" hike

That's how my husband described the hike we did at Tomales Bay Point - 6 miles, 3.5 hours.

Difficulty rating based on how tough: 1
Quality rating based on scenic beauty: 10!
(as rated by California Hiking)

the pacific ocean on the left and tomales bay on the right

the point where the ocean meets the bay

elks

more elks

That's why this is so wrong.