Garden of the Gods

This past weekend we went on two very different adventures. I've already shared Saturday's urban adventure (which you can see here), so today I'm sharing Sunday's nature adventure.

One of the good things about living in Colorado is that there is a wealth of amazing landscapes right on our doorstep to explore. One of the bad things about living in Colorado is that Summers are incredibly hot, which means that we're yet to explore a lot of these landscapes. On Sunday we decided to brave the heat and head south to Colorado Springs for the first time. While there are a lot of fun things to do and see in and around Colorado Springs, our destination for the day was Garden of the Gods.

I'd been wanting to visit Garden of the Gods for such a long time but we'd never gotten around to it either due to heat, snow or the fact that it gets crazy busy on weekends. Visiting on a weekend during a pandemic probably wasn't the best idea, but I knew that Kim would enjoy visiting there too so I wanted to save our first visit for a time when he could come along too. So we packed our masks, sunscreen and lots of water and hit the road for an afternoon out in nature.

Garden of the Gods is located just a short drive from Colorado Springs, which is about an hour and a quarter south of Denver or an hour and a half from Boulder. The park is easily accessible with several ways to explore. Visitors can park at the main parking lot at the entrance and hike through the park. Alternatively, there is a ring route drive called Juniper Way Loop with parking lots in various locations along the way. We decided to go for the second option - mostly because we missed the entrance to the parking lot and couldn't turn around, but also because there was a chance of a storm coming through in the afternoon and having our car nearby would be handy.

25 Kid Friendly San Francisco Bay Area Hikes

Ever since we moved from California to Colorado I've been dreaming of going back. I miss our life in the San Francisco Bay Area so much, but right now I'm grateful that here in Colorado we have a house and a yard, with plenty of space to spread out. In the Bay Area we'd be finding ourselves on lock down in a two bedroom apartment with no outdoor space of our own, which, as much as I want to move back, isn't particularly appealing right now.

For those of you who find yourself in that same position I'm sharing my favorite hikes in and around San Francisco. They're all kid friendly and area great way to get out and get a little exercise without traveling too far from home. As always, click the bold and underlined title for more information.

Please make sure to follow any and all Shelter in Place orders before heading out for a hike. Keep at least 6 feet away from other hikers and don't forget to pack the hand sanitzer. While parks are currently open this may change, so make sure to check online first.

Batteries to Bluffs Trail

After a grey and quite cool couple of weeks, the weather has really warmed up here in the Bay Area To make the most of the sun and the long weekend (and to celebrate my birthday) we decided to head to the Presidio in San Francisco and go for an afternoon hike.

I'm always a little embarrassed to admit that, despite living here for 6.5 years, we really haven't spent much time in this part of the city at all. This has mostly been due to the fact that we didn't own a car for such a long time, and it takes a long time to get to the Presidio by public transport from Berkeley. Now that we have a car for weekend adventures I'm keen to get out and explore more of this beautiful city as much as possible - especially now that the weather is nice.

Ava and I have been feeling a little under the weather this past week, so while I would've loved to take a long hike along the coast line I figured it was best to take a short hike for now. I checked out the hiking trails in the Presidio and the Batteries to Bluffs Trail jumped out at me straight away. At only 0.7 miles (1.1km) I knew that it would be an easy hike for the kids (they walk further to school each day), and with the beach at the end, there was definitely an incentive to get them moving!

An Evening Walk in Crockett

Now that we own a car we're trying to get out and about on short day trips around the Bay Area as much as possible. We've visited some pretty amazing places in our (almost) six years in the Bay Area, but there are so many out of the way places that we didn't even know existed that we're keen to explore. The North Bay is an area that we haven't really explored at all until now. We're familiar with the big bridges, the huge sugar refinery, the stunning water front and the rolling hills, but only from the context of zooming past them on the freeway on our way somewhere further afield. Over the weekend we decided to get out and explore a little of the North Bay area. 

We ended up in the little town of Crockett, located along the Carquinez Strait where the Bay narrows and home to the giant C&H Sugar refinery. We arrived late in the day as we'd been busy in the morning, and after grabbing a late lunch at a pizzeria we headed to a nearby park by the waterfront to explore.    

I had seen on the map that a trail leading through the path would take us down to the waterfront and the wreckage of an old ferry called Garden City. I'm a sucker for ruins and anything historic so we decided to go check it out. Now, there was a trail that lead through a valley towards the wreckage, but we decided to take a different trail (not marked on the map) that headed straight down to the water and then walk along the waterfront instead. That turned out to be a good call as the walk along the waterfront was a hit with the kids.

Bernal Heights Park

San Francisco is a city of hills. 

Some of these hills are densely built up, while others have been reserved as green space within the city. One such hill that remains undeveloped is Bernal Heights. While the lower slopes of the hill are built up with homes, the top of the hill is a spacious park with hiking trails and stunning views.