Walk with Me: Fall Scenes in Anthony Chabot Regional Park, from the Brandon, Cascade, Columbine, and Grass Valley Trails

 

I love to hike! And fall is a beautiful time to do it…. though unfortunately, it also means I don’t get to go nearly as often. It gets dark so early now, I can’t make it up to the hills after work early enough to catch more than half an hour or so of daylight.

Last week, I spent a happy Saturday afternoon in Anthony Chabot Regional Park, which borders Oakland, Castro Valley, and San Leandro.
This time, I brought my camera (not a very good one, but it does the trick).

Here are some scenes I came across on my hike on the loop consisting of the Brandon, Cascade, Columbine, and Grass Valley trails. Next time, I’ll get there a little earlier so I can make it all the way to the lake.

So come with me as I walk along these trails!

It’s a beautiful park, with ever-changing scenery, as are so many of the wild places in the Bay Area: you often can go from shady redwood groves to grassland, from seaside to desert, from cliffs to cow pastures, in a matter of minutes.

Yet again, I have to say it: for sheer grandeur and variety of scenes of natural beauty, I’ve never seen or heard of a better place than California. Here’s just a little slice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy M Cools's avatar

By Amy M Cools

Amy M. Cools is a historian, educator, researcher, and author. She is a Research Fellow in English and Creative Writing at Northumbria University, Newcastle, as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow (2023-2026). She specializes in the history of ideas, African American and United States history (especially antebellum), the study of civil rights movements, biographical explorations of extraordinary people, the history of philosophy, issues in ethics and law, and other topics in history, philosophy, and intellectual history. Amy holds a PhD in History (2021) and an MA in Intellectual History with Distinction (2018) from the University of Edinburgh (2018); a BA in Philosophy: Ethics, Politics and Law, Summa Cum Laude from California State University at Sacramento (2013), and an AA in Humanities and Fine Arts from Riverside City College (1999). Her doctoral thesis, ‘The Life and Work of James McCune Smith (1813-1865),’ is the first completed book-length biographical study dedicated to this pioneering intellectual, scientist, and physician. Amy’s project as a BA Fellow at Northumbria is to compile and edit McCune Smith’s complete written works. She is also currently writing a biography of McCune Smith, under contract with the University of Georgia Press. A native of California, USA, she currently makes her home near Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with her beloved husband and dog

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