Bay area hike - Week 1

Just as the work week nears the end and the weekend is in sight, I begin scratching my head to think up of ways to entertain the family. Well we always have our friendly neighborhood mall, but hubby dearest rolls his eyes heavenward asking for a reprieve! My daughter loses patience after 10 minutes into window shopping. So, what do we do which can qualify for family fun. Then the idea came- hiking.

Thank my stars for google. There is a wonderful site Bay Area Hiker. The website has classified hikes from being easy to the more difficult types. The section under hiking with kids is a very good source. With a 4 yr old we were looking for a 2-3 mile round trip hike.

The first week on the recommendation of a friend we went to Skyline Open Ridge Preserve. The trail begins at the Russian Ridge trail leading into the Alpine pond. This is a half mile hike around the pond. It left us asking for more, so we went for the longer hike to the Horseshoe Lake which was about 3 miles round trip. The highest point of this trail is the view of the grasslands. Never thought there was so much greenery in Palo Alto. The lowest point was having to climb our way back up the trail. Not accustomed to pushing itself to the limits, the body complained as I huffed and puffed my way through the trail. All the sweat and pain really paid off because my daughter enjoyed it. She felt like "Dora" and made us do the "We did it" jig after we reached the parking lot. Throughout the trail she was leading us and egging us on. Her enthusiasm brushed off on us as well. We finished the 3 mile hike in 4 hours :). But it was worth all the time and effort.