Outdoors - your guide to enjoying and understanding nature

A Christmas wish comes true as snowflakes fall in South Lake Tahoe

A Christmas wish comes true as snowflakes fall in South Lake Tahoe

By Tom Stienstra
A gray overcast Sunday over Lake Tahoe is forecast to shift into a sea of white flakes by Monday afternoon: Up to a foot of snow is forecast to pile up along the shore of the lake, with 18 inches and up on ...

Parks declare war on bots over camp reservations

Dusk glow is cast across the rustic camping cabins at Rocky Point on the Marin coast, part of Mount Tamalpais State Park. Reservations for July go on sale at 8 a.m. Monday and are expected to sell out for the month in about 10 minutes.

For more stories like this, check out The Chronicle’s weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here . State and national parks believe they have gained the upper hand in a war against software bots that ...

Diablo’s Devil’s Elbow can cure all city ails

The view from the North Ridge Trail on Mount Diablo looking southwest

At Devil’s Elbow Trailhead, the moment you leave pavement and hit the trail, the sensation of freedom from all conflict can wash over you like rain after a dust storm. On the way to Devil’s Elbow at ...

Eagle Scout shows how gift comes full circle

Petra (mom), Simon, sister Selina and dad Harold Herrmann at Simon's Eagle Award ceremony

A small event on the Peninsula last week showed how one small, personal gift has the chance to change a life and, in turn, change the world. The Boy Scouts’ Eagle Court of Honor presented Simon ...

25 do's and don'ts for driving in snow

Little cold for a dip: A driver hit ice on I-80 and sailed into the Truckee River. He escaped, but not the car.

For more stories like this, check out The Chronicle’s weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here . The moment it starts snowing, the calls start coming in. “Every storm, every day up here is real ...

Where to watch coho salmon spawn in the Bay Area

A large adult male coho salmon and small adult male coho, or jack male, compete to mate with an adult female coho (left) in the shallow waters of Lagunitas Creek.

From our perch above Devil’s Gulch Creek, a small stream in Marin County, it felt like we were glimpsing a secret world. At the bottom of a ravine edged by redwoods, we sighted a pair of 2-foot-long ...

Trout pens give hope to catch fish of lifetime

A volunteer pours a bucket of trout into a trout pen at Lake Siskiyou, where they will be fed over winter and grown to large sizes for release next May

In a magic moment Friday, Thea Cowsky poured a 5-gallon bucket filled with water and four big rainbow trout into a submerged pen. “My high school kids are going to be thrilled about this,” she said. ...

How to take advantage of Yosemite in winter

Denese Stienstra, with crampons and ski poles, treks on Dewey Point Meadow Trail en route from Badger Pass to south rim over Yosemite Valley

For more stories like this, check out The Chronicle’s weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here . The ice rink in Yosemite Valley reopened this month at its historic location just west of Curry Village ...

Snow already piled high, ski areas open gates

Nearly two feet of fresh snow accumulated at Sugar Bowl / Royal Gorge over the Thanksgiving holiday, allowing the resorts to open six days early on Sunday November 23, 2018.

Across the flank of the Tahoe Basin, miles of forest are glazed with a white frost and tree branches are flexing under the weight of snow. This is the first week of December? The scenes across the ...

S.F. skipper Jacqueline Douglas receives Congressional...

Jacqueline Douglas, captain of the Wacky Jacky out of San Francisco's Fishermen's Wharf, here with a big salmon, is ready to start her 47th year as a professional salmon skipper out the Golden Gate with the season opener on Sunday, June 17, 2018.

There’s nobody on the planet like San Francisco salmon skipper Jacqueline Douglas. Last weekend, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, affirmed that with a Congressional Proclamation, shared by Rep. Jackie ...

The key to a great winter Tahoe weekend? Know the snow line.

The view of 9,103-foot Castle Peak from Castle Pass, located across Interstate 80 from Boreal Ski Area near Donner Summit. In low snow conditions, you can climb Castle Peak in winter with Yaktrax and ski poles.

For more stories like this, check out The Chronicle’s weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here . Each time a storm swings through the Bay Area and sails toward Tahoe, we all wonder the same things: ...

Rain, trout stocks revitalize Bay Area lakes

Sunrise over Los Vaqueros Reservoir, nestled in the East Bay hills between Livermore and Brentwood. The lake is 93 percent of its new, huge capacity, and is reborn as a refuge for fish and wildlife.

The rain and wind this week has been pure sweetness for the lakes nestled across the foothills of the greater Bay Area. Sweet, that is, as in the infusion of cool, fresh water, stirred by wind, that has ...

A bear’s perfect Thanksgiving treat in Trinity County:...

A big black bear is captured on wildlife cam Thanksgiving week, when bears are packing on calories prior to hibernation

Not everybody had turkey, prime rib or another holiday specialty for Thanksgiving. In the far reaches of Northern California, a large black bear, stuffing calories on the eve of hibernation, found its ...

The 6 best places to spot sea otters off the California coast

Sea otters gather at Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing, Calif. on Thursday, April 12, 2018. Marine biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium have observed that sea otters rehabilitated and released into Elkhorn Slough has helped restore eel grass beds and the ecosystem.

The Chronicle has launched a new weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here . At the mouth of Elkhorn Slough, we floated near motionless in a tandem kayak and watched a colony of harbor seals sunning ...

Searching for a friend lost in the Camp Fire

Search and Recovery crew members from Oregon looks for remains off of Edgewood Lane after the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, California, on Monday, Nov. 19, 2018.

For two weeks, we searched for a lost friend. When we put our lines in the lake this week, I looked into the water and thought first of Stephen Gentile, not giant trout at Shasta Lake. When fall merges ...

One day separates a heaven or hell for Thanksgiving travel

On two-lane country road in Lake Tahoe Basin, this compact car spun out, braking too hard at low speed down hill on ice as it approached stop sign -- creating too much torque for tires to hold traction -- and ended up in the snow bank

On a nightmare Thanksgiving eve, it took brother Rambob & Co. five hours to drive from home near Pillar Point Harbor at Half Moon Bay through San Francisco to Vacaville, where the traffic picked up a ...

Tahoe’s top 8 intermediate-level ski routes

At Heavenly Mountain Resort, Sky Express provides access to intermediate runs that span miles with a Lake Tahoe frontage

The Chronicle has launched a new weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here . One secret can unlock the winter world and make you a skier for life. Disregard the mental images of Lindsay Vonn ripping ...

Fires ruin some outdoor-recreation sites, other sites unscathed

Sophia Ramazzotti, 16, left, and Yasmin Villa, 16, of Healdsburg, watch as a super scooper prepares to land for water in Lake Mendocino near Ukiah, Calif., Friday, Aug. 3, 2018, as they help to fight the Mendocino Complex forest fires in Lake and Mendocino Counties. (Kent Porter /The Press Democrat via AP)

The Camp Fire “looked like a nuclear firebomb had gone off,” said field scout Ed Migale, who was evacuated last weekend from the fire zone in Butte County. “At one point, it looked like the fire ...

10 best hikes for ocean views in Santa Cruz

The SS Palo Alto, is seen just offshore broken apart at the end of the pier at Seacliff State Beach, in Aptos, Ca., on Mon. March 27, 2017 after being damaged by winter storms.

The Chronicle has launched a new weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here. Enter your email and click “Sign up.” When you take in a sunset from a Santa Cruz bluff, it can feel like you’re ...

Millions of ducks, geese flocking to Sacramento Valley

At the viewing deck at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, photographer Andy Lacasse zooms in on ducks and geese

Above us to the right, two pintail ducks plummeted out of the morning sky at 50 mph. In tandem, they turned 45 degrees, locked their wings, and — in a falling-rising-falling dance in midair — plunged ...

Sensational Bay Area opener for Dungeness crab

Peter Akimo and Mike Juanes show off of a pot full of Dungeness crab taken in 190 feet of water Sunday off San Gregorio on the Huli-Cat out of Pillar Point Harbor

The opening of the sport season for Dungeness crab started in darkness Saturday with fears of high winds pushing a big swell on the open sea. It ended with a total of 297 people on 11 party boats landing ...

Stars aligning for great Dungeness crab opener

Doug Laughlin shows off a sport-caught Dungeness crab to pal Bruce MacKimmie on right, Pence MacKimmie on left, among a nice haul in a pot fished off Half Moon Bay

Imagine that the seafloor is crawling with hordes of giant Dungeness crabs, like something out of a science fiction movie. For those at Pillar Point Harbor, that vision has jump-started the suspense for ...

Clocked at 107 mph — guess what happened next

A tiger is seen in an enclosure at the In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue and Education Center in Wylie, Texas, Monday Feb.. 10, 2014. The facility recently accepted several tigers and two cougars from an East Texas facility that closed down. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, Mona Reeder) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET USE BY AP MEMBERS ONLY; NO SALES

The highway patrol clocked a buddy of mine, an outfitter from Idaho, at 107 mph on a state highway. What happened next shows the different worlds in which people live. In the Bay Area, 107 might get you ...

Marsh project means more fish, birds and wildlife

A kayaker paddles along the shore of Sherman Lake, near where the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers merge in the Delta, with a silhouette of Mount Diablo on the horizon

In the delta, with a few paddle strokes in a kayak across the cuts and sloughs of a wetlands marsh, it can feel like you’ve traveled through a wormhole in the universe and emerged out the other side. ...

Roundup of 1,000 wild horses to begin in remote Northern...

A sub-herd of wild horses near Logan Slough and Big Sage Reservoir in Modoc National Forest, among 5,000 that roam wild in the area

MODOC NATIONAL FOREST — From behind a juniper, a wild stallion stepped into a clearing. The animal’s dark coat glowed in the afternoon sun, and its shoulder muscles flexed and rolled with each step. A ...

RVs are out in force to see the fall colors in mountain country

R-pods are asmall, light camper-trailer that provides a place to sleep, and similar small campers, are top-sellers in the $15,000 to $20,000 range

Two dynamic forces are intersecting this week: Fall colors are peaking across the mountain country (and about to arrive in force in the foothills) — and RV buyers are transforming the outdoor scene. ...

Camera, frame of mind, can save magic moments

Flyfishing legend Ed Rice, nearly blind, caught and released this large rainbow trout while flyfishing at Rufus Woods Lake

From our skiff, in a circle 50 yards across in front of us, it looked like the surface of the quiet sea was dimpled like a golf ball. A moment later, those dimples then twitched in tiny ripples as if ...

State Parks’ streamed video shows sunken Tahoe shipwreck

A new state park designated underwater trail at Emerald Bay State Park at Lake Tahoe includes the largest collection of sunken boats in America

An eight-minute video posted on the State Parks Facebook page over the weekend shows a 100-foot barge on the bottom of Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe. It is the public’s first look at a new underwater trail ...

10 encounters show dangers of ‘GoPro Courage’

Drought buster: Full frontal of 129-foot McArthur-Burney Falls, viewed from plunge pool -- waterfall pumps 100 million gallons of water per day

In the TV business, producers call the phenomenon “GoPro Courage.” In social media, daredevils in the outdoors risk their lives when they film themselves in a mission to chase views, likes and ...

Bay Area rec openings fill future with promise

The SMART train pulls into the station in Santa Rosa, part of a 40-mile route from San Rafael to Santa Rosa where a bike trail is proposed to parallel much of the rail line

For those who love the outdoors, the future is a take-your-pick deal. New openings and prospects across the greater Bay Area will span the range of opportunities: Camp, hike, bike, bird watch, kayak and ...

Weekend getaway to Skyline Ridge on the Peninsula

Glow on Alpine Pond at Skyline Open Space Preserve, located on the Peninsula Skyline at the junction of Alpine Road. A nature center and viewing deck overlooks the pond, and a pretty trail circles it.

What you see: At Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve, you can take a short stroll to pretty Horseshoe Lake. Or you can go all day, with an ambitious hike or mountain bike ride to a ridge with a view west ...

Big Basin trail camps avert annual shutdown

Berry Creek Falls is framed by ferns and redwoods deep in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, located near Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains; 4.7-mile hike from headquarters to see it

In a major coup for Bay Area outdoors recreation, the best trail camps at Big Basin Redwoods State Park and in the Santa Cruz Mountains will stay open through fall and winter. The decision by California ...

Weekend Getaway: Ocean Beach

Hang glider sailing along San Francisco waterfront at Fort Funston south of Ocean Beach along Great Highway, photographed from popular cliff-top viewing area.
Photo: Tom Stienstra/The Chronicle

What you see: The black sand, magnetite, is magnetic. The hang gliders are sensational. Beach walks go on forever. Along Ocean Beach to Fort Funston, about 750,000 people visit this stretch of San ...

Weekend getaway to bird watching and more at Coyote Point

A bench with a view on the Bluff Trail along South San Francisco Bay at Coyote Point Recreation Area

What you see: The first surprise at Coyote Point is at the waterfront, where you can look out across the expanse of South San Francisco Bay. It’s so close to so many, but gazing out from land’s end ...

Weekend getaway to the Diablo Foothills Regional Park

Golden eagles, prairie falcons, peregrine falcons and other raptors are often sighted on the hike from Diablo Foothills Regional Park to Castle Rock Recreation Area

What you see: An extended series of monolithic sandstone structures is the highlight at Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area. As you pass through Pine Canyon and along Pine Creek, you have the option of ...

Sunday Drive: A weekend getaway to Fort Baker

An overlook of Fort Baker, located along the deep cove just inland from the northern foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin

What you get: World-class views and picnic sites, easy walks and a wild-card adventure for kayaks under the Golden Gate Bridge can put Fort Baker on the map for all. Fort Baker is set along the deep cove ...

Weekend getaway to Pescadero reveals beach, marsh

magtoc_262_mac.jpg David Sleeth of Menlo Park starting coming to Pescadero Beach with his parents some 20 years ago, now with a family of his own he takes his two boys to the same place. With his 3 year son Sekoya on his arm, Sleeth travels through a natural tunnel carved into the Peninsula that jets out to reach the Pacific Ocean. The Chronicle Sunday Magazine will be running a weekly Table of Contents photograph that will run as a horizontal. We are hoping to put a beautiful photograph in that spot that evokes emotion, is stunning or has a little moment. Photographed in, Half Moon Bay, Ca, on 9/8/07. Photo by: Michael Macor/ The Chronicle

Ran on: 11-04-2007

Why it works: You get a twofer at Pescadero State Beach and the adjoining Pescadero State Natural Preserve. For those who love beaches, carved-out havens against the cliffs, tidal reefs, lagoons and ...

Weekend getaway to San Francisco’s Coastal Trail

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People walk along the Coastal Trail. View from the parking lot off El Camino Del Mar.

Mile Rock Beach in San Francisco for 96 Hours' Urban Outings feature.

Lea Suzuki/ The Chronicle

Photo taken on 11/28/07, in San Francisco, CA, USA

What you see: The views are so spectacular that it can feel like you are looking at a painting. You can see across the mouth of San Francisco Bay and out to sea, over to the Marin Headlands and the ...

Weekend getaway to old-growth redwoods at Heritage Grove

The Heritage Grove Trail spans from Heritage Grove to Sam McDonald County Park, located south of La Honda

What you see: The Heritage Grove Trail, one of the Bay Area’s newest trails, provides access to a 37-acre grove with some mammoth, old-growth redwoods. Whether you walk for 100 yards, a mile or make it ...

Weekend getaway to waterfront possibilities at Bolinas Beach

A spur from the main road in Bolinas leads to access to this gorgeous wave-swept beach with good surfing, kayaking and paddling on a SUP

What you see: At Bolinas Beach, the waterfront arcs in a half moon south to Stinson Beach. To your left, you can walk along the expanse of sand to the mouth of Bolinas Lagoon. Along the way, you can ...

Weekend Getaway: Trailhead offers view of Mt. Diablo,...

(l to r) Conrad Culleney, Brandan Bohl and Jason Bohl, from Livermore climb Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park on Wednesday April 30,2014, in Pleasanton, Calif. Bay Area lawmaker Mark DeSaulnier is sponsoring a bill in Sacramento that would allow a city, county or regional park district to raise car registration fees to pay for bike lanes through cities and also create new regional park trails.

What you see: From the new trailhead at Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park, the payoff is the panoramic view from atop the 1,500-foot North Ridge Trail. Mount Diablo dominates the landscape to the northeast, ...

Sunday getaway to the gateway to Big Sur

A steep climb up a coastal mountain leads to this lookout bench over the top of the fog deck at Garrapata State Park near Big Sur on the Monterey coast

What you see: Garrapata State Park is the gateway to Big Sur on Highway 1, and with it, access to a series of spectacular state parks: Garrapata, Andrew Molera, Pfeiffer Big Sur and Julia Pfeiffer Burns. ...

Sunday getaway to see humpback whales in Monterey Bay

A humpback whale dives under a kayak and photographer Giancarlo Thomae in Monterey Bay

What you see: Humpback whales have provided such a sure-thing spectacle out of Monterey this month that the Monterey Bay Whale Watch Center has been running up to seven trips a day. Sightings have ranged ...

Weekend getaway to Jenkinson Lake

Jenkinson Lake at Sly Park Recreation Area provides camping, boating, fishing, and is full of water, located at an elevation of 3,500 feet near Pollock Pines on the flank of the Sierra Nevada

What you see: The scene was gorgeous last week at Sly Park: a full lake ringed by conifers, a few boats sprinkled across the water along with a handful of kayaks and powerboats. From the dam looking ...

Sunday getaway to Samuel P. Taylor State Park

Cabins in Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Lagunitas, Calif., on Saturday, August 20, 2016.

What you see: In minutes, you depart the city life at Fairfax for open foothills and then enter beyond into creekside redwoods at Samuel P. Taylor State Park. The trip provides one of the sharpest ...

Sunday getaway to Coloma

River rafting at the South Fork of the American River.

What you see: By river or by land, Coloma is one of the state’s best launch points for surprises. It is the No. 1 site for rafting in California and a state park built around the 1848 discovery of ...

Sunday getaway to Lake Hennessey

Moore Creek Park is seen across Lake Hennessey in St. Helena, Calif. Friday, Feb. 16, 2018.

What you see: Surprises are great in the outdoors, and when you come ’round the bend and see Lake Hennessey for the first time, you might be shocked at what you’ll find: a small, gorgeous lake ...

Sunday getaway to Coyote Hills

Visitors walk on a series of raised boardwalks through the marshes at Coyote Hills Regional Park, which located next to the 12-mile Alameda Creek Trail in Fremont. The Park runs west alongside Alameda Creek from the mouth of Niles Canyon in southern Alameda County to Coyote Hills Regional Park and the San Francisco Bay. The Park is approximately 1,000 acres renown for its bird-filled marshes, a Tuibun Indian village, and an array of hills, Indian shell mounds and Bay views. Thursday Jan 10, 2013, in Fremont California.

What you see : Coyote Hills provides panoramic views across south San Francisco Bay, whether from a shoreline trail or a hilltop. In an interior wetland, a boardwalk is routed through a marsh that ...

Sunday Getaway to Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay

The view of Emerald Bay and Lake Tahoe from Inspiration Point at Emerald Bay State Park

What you see: Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe is one of the prettiest places on the planet — a giant cove with cobalt-blue water, surrounded by a mountain rim crowned by Maggie's Peak, and dotted with Fannette ...

Sunday getaway to Carmel’s Point Lobos

Whaler's Cove at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is gorgeous, provides a chance to sight sea otters, and for scuba divers, provides some of the best fish watching near the kelp beds outside of an aquarium on the Pacific Coast

What you see: Venturing to Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is kind of like falling in love. Each time you look, you see something different that draws you in. Take your pick: Gorgeous ocean views, ...

Sunday getaway to Bodega Bay

Why now: One of the fastest ways to give your world a three-day holiday weekend makeover — and get a jump on summer — is to head out on Bodega Bay in a kayak or SUP. It’s easy to do, the location ...

Sunday getaway to El Corte de Madera Creek Preserve

A hike at�El Corde de Madera Open Space Preserve can lead to Vista Point for this view and a picnic site perched on a 2,200-foot ridge

What you’ll see: This easy trip features a pretty drive and five -minute walk to see the Methuselah Tree, a giant redwood. Go the extra mile and you’ll see the Tafoni — a one-of-a-kind sandstone ...

Sunday getaway to Uvas Canyon

On the entrance road to Uvas Canyon County Park, a sign warns that visitors must have a reservation for day-use parking, the first park in California to require reservations for day use.

What you see: The reopening of Uvas Canyon County Park brings with it a gorgeous easy walk, a good loop hike, and a campground with a guarantee that you won’t have to deal with parties. Swanson Creek ...

Sunday getaway to Mitchell Canyon

Mount Diablo's Mitchell Canyon in foreground, in shadow and light with high overcast, looking toward the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Why now: If you hike on Mount Diablo one time a year, now should be that time. Winds out of the northwest are common in May and that cleans out the air for great long-distance views from ridges. ...

Sunday getaway: Del Valle Regional Park

Shane Clifton looks out across the water while fishing in his kayak on Lake Del Valle at Del Valle Regional Park in Livermore, California, on Monday, April 4, 2016.

Why now: Spring rains and warm April temperatures have sparked Del Valle Reservoir and its 5,000 acres of parkland to life. You could search across the Bay Area’s 275 recreation destinations and find ...

Parks declare war on bots over camp reservations

Diablo’s Devil’s Elbow can cure all city ails

Eagle Scout shows how gift comes full circle

A small event on the Peninsula last week showed how one small, personal gift has the chance to change a life and, in turn, change the world. The Boy Scouts’ Eagle Court of Honor presented Simon ...

25 do's and don'ts for driving in snow

For more stories like this, check out The Chronicle’s weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here . The moment it starts snowing, the calls start coming in. “Every storm, every day up here is real ...

Bay Area rec openings fill future with promise

40-ton whales emerge 100 yards from shore in Monterey Bay

Facing life and death on Tahoe Rim Trail

Wide-open spaces dead ahead on delta

Fairfield Flyway Center gets a local permit to take flight

Marin’s mystery bear shows up at Tomales Bay

Sunken ships revealed at Tahoe’s new underwater trail

Thank 49ers, Raiders for wide-open spaces at Loon Lake

Salmon Highway gets green light for fall migration

Post Labor Day, Angel Island can be yours

Buses, RVs pose risk to cyclists at Mount Diablo

Bay Area’s newest game warden serious about job

Stinson tops 50 best beaches for Labor Day weekend

Triumphant homecoming for 14-year-old casting champ Maxine...

Once gone, eagles flourish in Bay Area skies

Outdoors: Labor Day hope shines through smoke

Big winter for rain, snow could fill state’s reservoirs

Wildlife wired to survive the forest infernos

San Francisco teen wins fly casting world championship

Drakes Estero can cleanse, renew your senses

Most recreational facilities escape damage from wildfires

At 14, Maxine McCormick casts for world title

Kayaking Morro Bay a chance to experience both the quiet and...

Mendocino’s parks solve ‘Summer of Smoke’

Rooting for a bison against a tourist

Cosmos aligns for night sky show of the year

Salmon, striped bass top surprise fishing bonanza in Bay Area

Live webcams provide crystal balls to outdoor getaways

After five years, 10,000 miles in Africa, Francis Tapon comes...

The hidden side of Jack London Park

Yosemite closure leaves rec options; conditions set for inferno

Sierra Nevada recreation sites become a weekend destination

From birds to bears, take nature’s test to see wildlife

Mount Tam’s West Point Inn offers step back in time

Being alone on the wilderness trail: Perilous or benign?

Sunday getaway to Tahoe’s Ellis Peak

Early-morning wake-up yields dawn elk treasure

’Tis the season for ‘Dancing with Fog’

At summer campsite, cute squirrels can go rogue

Chart-buster times: salmon to whales, bears to bighorns

Top 10 campsites in Humboldt County

Mount Eddy’s ‘reveal moment’ of giant Shasta

Tom Stienstra’s 10 must-dos when you head outdoors for vacation

First breath, first steps in little-seen wildlife world

Hot sun, full moon, cool water make for surreal swims

Campers can still hit the jackpot in Yosemite

Outdoor family vacations can bind or break

High Sierra paradise for free (and for sale)

Tom Stienstra: California’s 25 best cabins on golden ponds

Salmon season opens with limit catches for just about everyone

Trails, camps, lakes open for summer in Land of Muir

Chronicle hike yields La Honda’s coastal hill treasures

Soon to turn 90, ‘Wacky Jacky’ captain extends her own...

Salmon opener brings mysteries, chance of mayhem

Cinder Cone’s mystery unveiled in Land of Smoke

Lesson told when car careens off mountain road

Joining the ‘1 Percent Club’ at Yosemite’s Laurel Lake

Mount Shasta designated as Pacific Crest Trail’s first...

The best remote cabins in Northern California

Summer arrives: Light the fuse and stand back

Nature’s fortune-tellers predicted wild weather for Memorial...

It’s nature’s way, caught on camera

High lakes, camp openings crown Memorial Day outlook

Mountain thunder, lightning mean summer has arrived

Surprise visits in Bay Area backyards

Poke a hole in the sky, change your life forever

Northern California’s 12 splashiest waterfalls

Yosemite, Tahoe, Shasta a go for summer rec season

Rafters launch stellar season for rivers, water sports

Many rides, one truth for all levels of cyclists

East Bay district shows how best to fund parks

NorCal lakes heat up for boating, fishing, camping

Opening of trail camps is a cure for what ails

Mama fox and her 5 pups teach a wildlife lesson

Adventures in the shadow of nature’s greatest powers

Anglers cast for magic on Saturday’s trout opener

Ken Hofmann, former A’s owner and developer, dies at 95

Orcas’ attack on gray whale shows the unfortunate side of...

Northern California hot spots for spring wildflowers

Youngster tops vacation with bass, not cell phone

Castle Crags’ spectacular little seen world

Whales, orcas converge in Monterey Bay

Spring arrives for Los Vaqueros’ nesting eagles

Lake Chabot’s magic coronation of spring

Floods hammer Sierra foothills

On the trail of tracks, shadows and a wolf

Streaming your entertainment outdoors after big rains in Bay Area

Tom Stienstra: ‘Perfect storm’ set to ignite spring...

Nature hits it out of the ballpark with rain, snow

Yosemite’s March run: lodging, snow treks wide open

Outdoors equipment shopping? Don’t settle for less than comfort

At dinnertime, mountain lion lurks in the shadows

Tom Stienstra's favorite winter hikes in California

No-name waterfall a prize find on Mendocino coast

Handmade fishing equipment makes 5,500-mile journey to California

Winter, spring arrive at same moment at Mount Diablo

Hike, bike or camp: Monte Bello can set you free

Ski areas leverage skiers on pricing

Rare phenomenon sets tide waters aglow at Rodeo Beach

Joining the ‘5 Percent Club’ at Mount Shasta

Tips from 40,000-mile cyclist can help avoid car-vs.-bicycle...

A hidden gem rises from the ashes of Napa Valley

Kayak, SUP, canoe for escape hatch to freedom

Change your world with a night or two in a warm Big Basin tent...

2-week showdown to protect deer, stop poachers

Winter has taken on a spring feel

Karma’s power evident in the outdoors

‘June-uary’ turns Yosemite Valley into private jewel

All factors aligned for Super Bowl ski weekend

Midwinter looks like spring for eagles, trout, elk

Litigator quits the fast lane for a life on the Sea of Cortez

New Boater Card cracks down on inexperience

Bay Area coast’s secret haunt for great white sharks

New technology solves wildlife mysteries in California

As winter arrives, rain ignites waterfalls across Northern...

Sportsmen’s Expo open at Cal Expo

Chance to see fish sex at Marin’s Lagunitas Creek

World-champion female archer leads 4 into Outdoors Hall of Fame

Lakes high, trout hungry at 10 East Bay parks

Up high, high hopes for snow at ski areas this week

Whale of a time for whale watching

10 life-changing revelations in the outdoors

High lake and reservoir levels could make for great year on...

Cyclist safety improving on Mount Diablo’s roads

Henry Coe’s step back in time to hike, bike, fish, camp

Sunday drive to Pearson-Arastradero Preserve

Palo Alto residents have had exclusive access to Boronda Lake and�Foothills�Park. From neighboring Pearson-Arastradero Preserve, visitors can now get access by hiking in on a gateway trail.

Gateway park: A little-known trail from Pearson-Arastradero Preserve provides a gateway into Foothills Park, the only access available for non-Palo Alto residents. The payoff is a sensational view of the ...

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