Journeys›Photograph

Berkeley Hills, Muir Woods, Morro Bay

·San Francisco, California·#hiking#california#summer#bay area#landscape#redwoods
An aerial view of a city overlooking a large bay with islands, distant mountains, and a suspension bridge under a hazy sky.

Started up in the Berkeley hills, where the whole bay lays itself out below you — the Golden Gate Bridge small in the haze, Alcatraz in front of it, and a fog bank sitting offshore that never came in. Boats scattered across the water like specks.

From there, over to Muir Woods. Roosevelt set it aside in 1908 under the Antiquities Act, and it's now 558 acres of old-growth coast redwood inside the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The tallest trees run about 258 feet, and the main canyon stays cool even in mid-August, which was welcome after the open hillsides. Ferns down in the creek gullies, trunks close enough together that the sky only shows in strips. The trails climbing out of the canyon were nearly empty compared to the main loop.

Then the long drive south to end the weekend on the coast at Morro Bay. Wind off the water, a handful of trucks pulled in against the base of Morro Rock, and tire tracks looping across the sand flats in every direction.

Panoramic view from a hillside overlooking a city, a bay with ships, and distant mountains under a clear blue sky.Looking up at tall redwood trees in a dense forest with sunlight filtering through the canopy.A dense forest of tall, straight trees with reddish bark and green undergrowth on a slope.Sunlight streams through a dense forest of tall, straight trees, illuminating the ground and undergrowth below.Looking up at a dense forest of tall trees with sunlight filtering through the canopy and casting shadows on the forest floor.A large, dark rock formation stands on a sandy beach next to the ocean under a clear blue sky.From a hillside, a large city and bay stretch to the horizon under a vast clear blue sky.Tall redwood trees in a forest reach up, with bright sunlight shining through the canopy onto the shaded forest floor.

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