The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve

It’s gotten to be quite a tradition, lately. Ozreiuosn and I go hiking quite a bit lately. Well, it’s a lot of fun and we get some exercise. Today, Oz picked out a couple of trails at Purisima Creek Redwoods. After a short lunch in Half Moon Bay, we headed up the hill. Harkins Ridge Trail heads up to 1515 feet on a trail that skirts the dry side of a gulch that overlooks Purisima Creek. Some of the portions of this trail are very steep, but the views are well worth the effort. At the top of Harkins Ridge, we followed the ridge back down into the redwoods along Soda Gulch Trail and later down the wide Purisima Creek Trail. The weather was perfect, although a little warmer than I was expecting it to be, but that’s why we wear layers.

Great hike. I’m going to have to come back and explore more of the scenic trails here.

My stats: 3:32:43, 56:56 zone (basic), HR: 109 avg, 163 max, 1424 cal
Distance: 7.15 miles.

[…] Sanborn Trail winds toward Skyline and threatens in a couple of places, but never quite delivers, a jaw-dropping view of the Silicon Valley. The redwood forest, all orange and brown with the fall colors, was the same as we saw recently at Purisima Creek Redwoods, Big Basin Redwoods, and Castle Rock (which lies about 3 miles away from the top of our trail). The climb was steep and fun and the descent on San Andreas Trail windy and gradual, with no vistas to speak of. I liked the hike much more than Oz did, but now that I’ve come to this park, I don’t have to come back. There’s just not enough interesting scenery here to warrant the large parking lot fee. […]