Käyttäjän ndiversitybusarelo päiväkirja

I chose the coastal redwood forest as the site for our final field assignment. For my third hike I went to the Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park which is a part of the East Bay Regional Parks System. My 2011 copy of the Moon Outdoors: 101 Great Hikes in the San Francisco Bay Area ranked Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park as one of the best redwood forests in the Bay Area and ranked the Stream, Fern, and West Ridge Trail Loop in the top 10 hikes of the East Bay. The summary of the park stated:
The East Bay’s answer to Muir Woods and Big Basin are the prized redwoods of Redwood Regional Park.
I walked the West Ridge Trail along with the Bridle Trail for an hour before looping back into the Golden Spike Trail for the final portion of my hike. I felt embraced by the lush Ferns and Coast Redwoods of varying sizes and ages that filled the forest. White flowers such as Native Trailing Blackberry, Pacific Ninebark, and Three-Cornered Garlic as well as beautiful pastel blue Broadleaf Forget-Me-Nots decorated the trails like polka dots. I spotted a few birds on my binoculars that I couldn't capture on my camera but I did get a couple of pictures of Button’s Banana Slugs that were sharing the path with hikers. The skies were clear and sunny but the grove of Redwoods accompanied by Mixed Oaks and Eucalyptus provided a cooling canopy. I arrived around 9:30 am and departed around 11:15am with the weather remaining a nice 80 degrees for the entire duration. By the end of my hike, I spotted a few Rainbow Trout hatchlings swimming in the stream nearby.