Skyline Ridge/Russian Ridge

Date: May 28 and 20, 2016.

Location: Skyline Boulevard, San Francisco Bay Area, CA

I am posting here a few cellphone photos from a couple of short Memorial Day weekend hikes I did in Russian Ridge and Skyline Ridge Preserves respectively (the two are adjacent).

I had just returned from a business trip in Europe on Friday afternoon, and was still quite jet lagged when I headed out to get some fresh air around 10:00 a.m. or so Saturday morning. Parking at the Russian Ridge parking lot, I headed up the Bay Area Ridge Trail to the summit called Borel Hill. This affords sweeping views, but it was too hazy to get clear photos.

Borel Hill

Near the Vista Point parking lot, I decided to loop back by following the Charquin Trail, and later switched to the Ancient Oaks Trail which eventually rejoins the Bay Area Ridge Trail. 

Wildflowers along trail

Ancient Oaks!

I headed back to the parking lot, and decided to linger a few more minutes by heading down the tunnel spanning Alpine Road  to Alpine Pond, where I had a quick snack before heading back.

Alpine Pond

After a lazy Sunday, I was up early on Monday morning, and decided to get some exercise while it was still relatively cool. At 7:30 a.m., I parked my car in the Russian Ridge parking lot, and headed down via the tunnel to Alpine Pond, which was rather deserted at this hour except for a lone jogger. From here I re-traversed a portion of the Ipiwa Trail I had walked a few weeks earlier, headed up Butano View Trail (there were some lovely wildflowers to be seen here), and then switched to the Sunny Jim trail to loop back to my starting point. It was early enough that expanses of clouds covered portions of the hills, still undispersed; I got some lovely pictures. I was done in an hour, and headed back by the time it started getting hot.

Floating expanse of clouds

That cloudy expanse looks like a water body from afar

Ethereal, isn't it!

Lovely unidentified wildflower