Thursday, October 4

At around 10AM on Thursday I took BART to the Airport where I picked up a rental car I had previously booked. From there I took 101 South to the J. Arthur Young Freeway / SR 92 west to Skyline Boulevard / SR 35.

State Route 35 in the U.S. State of California, generally known as Skyline Boulevard, is a 2-lane road running along the western ridge of Silicon Valley in California. It runs from Highway 17 to San Francisco at State Route 1.

It provides scenic views of both the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Silicon Valley Metropolitan Area, Half Moon Bay, and San Francisco Bay. Because of its high elevation and location it is one of the few places on the Bay Area's southern peninsula from which the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean are both visible at the same time.

A notable feature of Skyline Boulevard is historic Kings Mountain in Woodside. Skyline Boulevard offers views of Half Moon Bay as it summits Kings Mountain. More...

Source: WikiPedia

 

Click on these photos for a higher resolution.
They will be slow to load with a dial-up connection.

Just about lunch time I found myself at Woodside, near the intersection of Rts. 35 and 84. Here sits Alice's Resteraunt and a gas station.

Here is my selection: "Mexican Scramble".

  • 3 eggs
  • Chorizo
  • Cheddar Cheese
  • Tomato
  • Green
  • Onion
  • Country Potatoes
  • Whole Wheat Toast

After I finished this load I could barely move and it sat with me like a ton of bricks for the rest of the day.

Check out the menu.

The Skyline drive runs the ridge tops for much of it length. There are some sweeping vistas to both the East and West. It's hard to tell what this is, but it is a view to the east towards Palo Alto.

Here is a Google map snippet of the area.

Click on this, and all photos for a higher resolution.

How I managed to make so many trips to the Bay area and never notice this tree I do not know.

As it turned out this was just the first of many times on this ERT I would come across beautiful California Buckeyes
(Aesculus californica) like this one.

On the way to Big Basin I stopped at Castle Rock SP for a short walk.
There were many beautiful Pacific Madrones (Arbutus menziesii) there.

Bark detail of Madrone.

After leaving Castle Rock I headed over to Big Basin SP.

I musta missed the big Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), but I was mighty impressed with this big Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) .

Interesting patterns on an old snag.

This was a fern I saw regularly along stream banks, low spots and wet ditches - The Giant Chain Fern. (Woodwardia fimbriata)
Some of the plants I saw had fronds 5 feet long!

I was not quite sure what the deal was with this log which had been flattened on one side. It was about 30 feet long an may have been a foot bridge at one time.

Well, not much of a visit to Big Basin. Things did not seem to click for me there. Maybe next time...

Day 16 - FINIS