Bob Lorentzen & Richard Nichols
In the 18th century, the colonial powers considered the California coast hot property. The Spaniards, English, and Russians all wanted the vast resources of this bountiful land. The Spaniards launched expeditions from their colony in Mexico, claiming California for the Spanish crown. The Spaniards worried about the Russian presence in California, with the czar’s men…
Read MoreSan Francisco’s staggering number of attractions invite foot-powered exploration with many of them near the California Coastal Trail. Whether you want to learn about military or maritime history, walk around quiet lakes, visit a Dutch windmill, or dine overlooking the ocean, it’s all close by. If you choose to walk to a destination and return…
Read MoreIn 1776 Juan Bautista de Anza arrived at the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula. His party camped for two nights at Mountain Lake. De Anza pounded a cross into the earth on the bluff overlooking the Golden Gate, claiming it for Spain. Soldiers and settlers followed, establishing the Presidio (it means garrison or fort)…
Read MoreSan Francisco is among the world’s most popular tourist attractions and the Golden Gate Bridge is the City’s biggest attraction. Millions of people come to marvel at this astounding man-made feature in its dramatic natural setting. So far, however, few people know that four different long distance trails cross the Golden Gate Bridge en route…
Read MoreThe Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is not only the largest urban park in the world at 74,000 acres but also one of the most dramatic meetings of land and sea on the planet. GGNRA grew out of years of efforts to save open space in urban San Francisco and neighboring Marin and San…
Read MoreFarming, logging and development have severely altered much of California’s coast, so to experience the coast in a relatively original and unaltered condition, visit Point Reyes National Seashore. The United States Congress recognized the extraordinary value of this wild and scenic place, creating the National Seashore in 1962, preserving it permanently for public recreation and…
Read MoreImagine, as you walk along the north coast on the Coastal Trail, looking out over the Pacific and seeing ten oil drilling platforms. That’s what Big Oil wants and the U.S. Department of Interior has proposed in Lease Sale #53, currently on hold thanks to intense public opposition. As long as our society is dependent…
Read MoreFrom Mendocino County south to San Diego, an irregular series of marine terraces, or wave-cut benches, occur between the shoreline and the coastal foothills. Carved by waves and wind-driven water at sea level, these terraces feature a vertical, or steeply rising, cliff face at their seaward edge (bluffs) backed by a level or gently sloping…
Read MoreThe California Coastal Trail provides some of the best whale watching in the state. If you hike the coast between December and May, you’ll have excellent chances to see some of the 18,000 California gray whales that swim the west coast each year. If you hike CCT in summer or autumn, you might get lucky…
Read MoreAs we move south along the California coast, the fate of its native cultures grows increasingly harsh. While all native cultures suffered from white settlement, some of the northern tribes like the Tolowa and Yurok discussed earlier were able to maintain sufficient population to retain much of their cultural identity. North of the Russian River,…
Read More