San Bruno Mountain State and County Park

Wednesday, April 6, 2011, was a beautiful spring day. Tuesday was too, but on Tuesday I didn't get a chance to walk around outside as I'd hoped. I wasn't going to similarly miss getting outside on Wednesday.

I left work early, grabbed Di Yin, and we headed up to San Bruno Mountain County Park / State Park, a large park not far from San Francisco.

We did a stunning hike with views of the bay, the east bay, San Francisco's downtown, the Marin headlands, San Francisco's west-side beaches, and the Pacific Ocean. Because we were more than a thousand feet up, we could see far in every direction. The day's pictures attest. Di Yin also took pictures.

We hiked most of Summit Loop trail and also some of Dairy Ravine trail. We couldn't hike all of Summit Loop trail as we'd planned because one of the creeks was flooded, making that segment impossible to cross.

The most remarkable feature of this mountain park--beside the views of course--is the incredible wind. At times, it was probably above thirty miles an hour. Near the top of the mountain, the wind was so strong that we could lean forward and have it support us in a position that would be unstable without it. Also, the wind was so strong that we could only hear one another if the wind was going in the direction one's voice needed to travel; if the wind was pointing away from the other person, the sound was drowned out and swept away.