Berkeley Aquatic Park

Yesterday we decided to OptOutside for Black Friday (thank you REI!) and headed down to the Berkeley Aquatic Park. Having lived in the area all my life, I'd somehow never been here. It's a pretty funky park - a skinny strip of land tucked between the railroad tracks and the freeway with a strip of grass running along a lagoon. There's a paved path that runs the whole length of the park that's very popular with walkers and runners and bikers. It was a beautiful sunny day and there were lots of people! It's completely level. We parked at the north end at the foot of Addison St. and walked all the way to the south end, almost to Emeryville. The round trip was almost exactly 3 miles.

The reason we chose to spend the afternoon at this funky little park? Butterflies! For the first time anyone knows about, there are Monarch butterflies clustering in the ash trees near the 14th hole of the disk golf course. They are amazing! There were huge clusters of butterflies that looked like some growth on the tree and lots of them flittering around.

There's a playground with some pretty awesome structures. There's a disc golf course running the length of the park. It's actually pretty, if you avoid thinking about the freeway that's always in your view. It's also not a park you want to visit when it's getting dark since it's got quite a reputation for being a hang out for some pretty shady characters.

 Park information here.

Complete image set here.

Pt. Pinole Salt Marsh

Because it was supposed to rain this weekend (yay!) we decided to take the dog on a long-ish hike on Saturday. We headed to Pt. Pinole and ended up in an area that was new to us. When we went into the park toward the play structures, we headed right toward Cook's Point. Just before the point at the trail intersection, we headed left on Marsh Trail. This trail runs along the bay toward the fishing pier. The marsh is beautiful in its own unique way. There's a great display that explains how the marsh was formed and illustrates all the plants. Thanks EBRPD naturalists! After we spent some time educating ourselves and watching the birds, we headed back on Owl Alley. We went about 3 miles.

We love Pt. Pinole! It's less than half an hour from our house so we can go there without any advanced planning. Huge amounts of the park are off-leash, which the dog loves. It's flat, which my knee loves, and there are so many trails you almost never repeat a hike. And its' beautiful!

Trail information here:


Complete photo set here.

Fall at Pt. Pinole

We spent Veteran's Day afternoon hiking in Pt. Pinole. The sun was out and it was crisp and perfect for a hike. We always start along the Bay View trail since we love looking at the water. At the end, about a mile in, the trail is closed due to a fallen tree. We turn up away from the Bay and seem to take a different route every time. We've had two rain storms recently and you can see the start of little blades of green poking up. Yay! We were hoping to see butterflies since it's almost that time of year but had no luck. We'll be back in a couple of weeks to check again!

Park information here.

Complete photo set here.