Pleasanton Ridge: On Top of the World

Pleasanton Ridge: On Top of the World
14 February 2002

Location
Pleasanton Ridge Park, East Bay Regional Parks District in Alameda County in California. Map in PDF format.

I chose to spend Valentines Day in the place I love most on Earth, Pleasanton Ridge Park south of Pleasanton. Pleasanton Ridge is a funny shape for a park. It consists of an east-west approach from the valley floor up to the top of the ridge and then the rest of the park is the roughly north-south oriented ridge. To the west of the ridge is Kilkare Canyon and then Sunol Ridge. To the east is Pleasanton and the 680 freeway.

I took the Woodland Trail up onto the ridge and then turned onto Thermalito Trail. Along Thermalito I found two geocaches, Shaken, Not Stirred and Joaquin's Stash. When it was time to leave, I took the Ridgeline Trail and the Oak Tree Trail back down to the car.

Two screensavers with photos from this page are available.

Weather

Hazy sunshine most of the time. It was still warm enough to walk in only a t-shirt until the sun was setting.

Click on the images to see larger versions.

The Woodland Trail is more varied than the Oak Tree Trail. This is right at the beginning.

Along it there are views like this through "windows" in the foliage.

But it's not just the views, the trail itself is pretty, sometimes overwhelmingly pretty. Who can resist the dappled shade in a photo like this? Don't you want to know what happens where the trail dips down between the oaks?

At the edge of the woodland we're looking out into the bright sunshine. In July this may be daunting but in February the sunshine makes a nice contrast to the shade of the woodland. Besides, you can see that there's more woodland on the other side of the meadow.

There we find a graceful, weeping valley oak in solitary splendour. In the background you can see what a great vantage point it has.

Here is another with a more upright habit. You may wonder if it has got new foliage only in a few places but the green blobs don't belong to the oak. They are mistletoe, a semi-parasite.

On top of the ridge there aren't just oaks but also olive trees. There are several groves that were planted by humans and many that were planted by squirrels and blue jays In this photo the trees that frame it are olives and so are the trees in the middle distance. The woodland on the other side of the canyon is oak. This photo was taken near the first geocache.

Looking down on another hill with olive trees on it. The holes in the hill are made by ground squirrels. Needless to say they love the olives.

A picture of an olive tree reveals the silvery foliage. The leaves are hard and narrow. The tops are dark green and shiny while the undersides are silvery.

Much smaller and in their own way more graceful than oaks, these olive trees are kept in shape by the East Bay Parks District.

OK, one last look at the serried ranks of olive trees. There's no way you could think these were planted by squirrels.

In one of the ponds, I found these mallards.

The topology in northern California has been shaped by violent earthquakes. It seems that every place with self-respect has its own fault line. But it's only when you come out in the terrain and discover canyons like this on a more human scale that it dawns on you how violent the geological past must have been. The two banks in this photo obviously didn't start out at a 45 degree angle to each other.

But they will remain like this for a long time because of gravity. Gravity makes the water run down into and along crevices like this one. Gravity also makes acorns bounce down into the canyon. With the added moisture, the resulting oaks grow strongly and hold up the banks at this dizzying angle.

A more mellow photo with rounded hills. The tree in the distance is a live oak. You can tell that it's not an olive because olive branches wouldn't go this far out from the trunk. Oak wood is singularly hard. That's why you often see oaks with branches that are near horizontal. Olive wood is too brittle for that. The branches would break off from the weight of the leaves.

There are always turkey vultures soaring on the thermals in Kilkare Canyon. Here two are cruising in the breeze while three are perched on the dead oak branches. It looks as if the highest flying one has something in its beak.

This is bird food for another bird. Acorn woodpeckers make these holes in dead or dying wood and store acorns in them to tide them over until the next harvest. If you click on the picture you can see that some of the holes still have acorns in them. It looks very organised, doesn't it?

This is Thermalito Trail. When you come up on top of the ridge the trail can be a bit hard to find and it's tempting to use the Ridgeline Trail. But Thermalito is much more varied and you'll see more wildlife on it.

Some parts of Thermalito go through woodland and some parts across open savannah. But shady oak dells are never far away.

I kept an eye out for the turkey vultures in case one of them would fly close enough for me to get a good shot of it. This is one of the best.

I've actually seen a flock of them on the ground. It was at the first watering trough on the Ridgeline Trail. They were sitting on the edge and one was standing on a picnic table nearby. They look fearsome on the ground, not to mention when they take off and fly right over you. It's an experience I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

The next few pictures are all just plain landscape photos. If you can call photos of this magical place plain. This is looking south.

Smaller ridges jut out from Pleasanton Ridge unto Kilkare Canyon. This is looking north.

The second cache required me to climb into some oak woodlands. This is the view from between two limbs of a live oak.

This is the woodland itself. See what I was saying about near horizontal branches?

And here we have a visitor. This is mistletoe, a parasite that grows on oaks. It's American mistletoe, Phoradendron villosum, which is a different species from the European mistletoe, Viscum album, venerated by druids. The host tree is not adversely affected by the mistletoe except that branches that carry heavy growth may break from the added strain.

More turkey vultures. This is a rare photo because the upper bird is actually beating its wings. Most of the time they just hold them stretched out, only using minute movements to steer. The top of the wing is black like most of the rest of the bird. It's just the sunshine that makes it look white in this picture.

Here one of the trails that connects the Thermalito and Ridgeline trails goes through some live oaks.

We've reached the Ridgeline trail. That's what the marker says. Now it's just straight south along the Ridgeline Trail until we come to the Oak Tree Trail heading down to the valley floor. You can that it's getting late because the sun shines almost horizontally on the signpost. Soon Sunol Ridge will cut off the sunlight.

The shadows are getting longer and the colour of the light changes.

Looking south we can see a single oak tree in the distance and beyond it only hazy shades of blue.

As I got closer I realised that I had taken a picture of this oak from a point on the Thermalito trail earlier in the walk. I still like the way the light and shadow sculpts the hills.

Another oak, this one deciduous. The haze is picking up the pink from the setting sun.

Here we've come to the olive groves. The sky between the trees is pink while the silvery leaves are glowing in the fading light.

In between the trees the grass looks even greener than before.

Looking south, the pinkish light comes from the right while the sky in the east is blue still.

If the previous picture was too subtle, this one will give you more definition. I had to hurry down the Oak Tree trail but by the time I got to the car it was pitch dark. It was lucky that I had taken a small flashlight from one of the caches so that I could find my way the last bit.

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Copyright Mjausson 2001

Location	Pleasanton Ridge Park, East Bay Regional Parks District in Alameda County in California. Map in PDF format. I chose to spend Valentines Day in the place I love most on Earth, Pleasanton Ridge Park south of Pleasanton. Pleasanton Ridge is a funny shape for a park. It consists of an east-west approach from the valley floor up to the top of the ridge and then the rest of the park is the roughly north-south oriented ridge. To the west of the ridge is Kilkare Canyon and then Sunol Ridge. To the east is Pleasanton and the 680 freeway. I took the Woodland Trail up onto the ridge and then turned onto Thermalito Trail. Along Thermalito I found two geocaches, Shaken, Not Stirred and Joaquin's Stash. When it was time to leave, I took the Ridgeline Trail and the Oak Tree Trail back down to the car. Two screensavers with photos from this page are available.

Weather	Hazy sunshine most of the time. It was still warm enough to walk in only a t-shirt until the sun was setting.

Click on the images to see larger versions.

	The Woodland Trail is more varied than the Oak Tree Trail. This is right at the beginning.

Along it there are views like this through "windows" in the foliage.

	But it's not just the views, the trail itself is pretty, sometimes overwhelmingly pretty. Who can resist the dappled shade in a photo like this? Don't you want to know what happens where the trail dips down between the oaks?

At the edge of the woodland we're looking out into the bright sunshine. In July this may be daunting but in February the sunshine makes a nice contrast to the shade of the woodland. Besides, you can see that there's more woodland on the other side of the meadow.

	There we find a graceful, weeping valley oak in solitary splendour. In the background you can see what a great vantage point it has.

Here is another with a more upright habit. You may wonder if it has got new foliage only in a few places but the green blobs don't belong to the oak. They are mistletoe, a semi-parasite.

	On top of the ridge there aren't just oaks but also olive trees. There are several groves that were planted by humans and many that were planted by squirrels and blue jays In this photo the trees that frame it are olives and so are the trees in the middle distance. The woodland on the other side of the canyon is oak. This photo was taken near the first geocache.

Looking down on another hill with olive trees on it. The holes in the hill are made by ground squirrels. Needless to say they love the olives.

	A picture of an olive tree reveals the silvery foliage. The leaves are hard and narrow. The tops are dark green and shiny while the undersides are silvery.

Much smaller and in their own way more graceful than oaks, these olive trees are kept in shape by the East Bay Parks District.

	OK, one last look at the serried ranks of olive trees. There's no way you could think these were planted by squirrels.

In one of the ponds, I found these mallards.

	The topology in northern California has been shaped by violent earthquakes. It seems that every place with self-respect has its own fault line. But it's only when you come out in the terrain and discover canyons like this on a more human scale that it dawns on you how violent the geological past must have been. The two banks in this photo obviously didn't start out at a 45 degree angle to each other. But they will remain like this for a long time because of gravity. Gravity makes the water run down into and along crevices like this one. Gravity also makes acorns bounce down into the canyon. With the added moisture, the resulting oaks grow strongly and hold up the banks at this dizzying angle.

A more mellow photo with rounded hills. The tree in the distance is a live oak. You can tell that it's not an olive because olive branches wouldn't go this far out from the trunk. Oak wood is singularly hard. That's why you often see oaks with branches that are near horizontal. Olive wood is too brittle for that. The branches would break off from the weight of the leaves.

	There are always turkey vultures soaring on the thermals in Kilkare Canyon. Here two are cruising in the breeze while three are perched on the dead oak branches. It looks as if the highest flying one has something in its beak.

This is bird food for another bird. Acorn woodpeckers make these holes in dead or dying wood and store acorns in them to tide them over until the next harvest. If you click on the picture you can see that some of the holes still have acorns in them. It looks very organised, doesn't it?

	This is Thermalito Trail. When you come up on top of the ridge the trail can be a bit hard to find and it's tempting to use the Ridgeline Trail. But Thermalito is much more varied and you'll see more wildlife on it.

Some parts of Thermalito go through woodland and some parts across open savannah. But shady oak dells are never far away.

	I kept an eye out for the turkey vultures in case one of them would fly close enough for me to get a good shot of it. This is one of the best. I've actually seen a flock of them on the ground. It was at the first watering trough on the Ridgeline Trail. They were sitting on the edge and one was standing on a picnic table nearby. They look fearsome on the ground, not to mention when they take off and fly right over you. It's an experience I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

The next few pictures are all just plain landscape photos. If you can call photos of this magical place plain. This is looking south.

	Smaller ridges jut out from Pleasanton Ridge unto Kilkare Canyon. This is looking north.

The second cache required me to climb into some oak woodlands. This is the view from between two limbs of a live oak.

	This is the woodland itself. See what I was saying about near horizontal branches?

And here we have a visitor. This is mistletoe, a parasite that grows on oaks. It's American mistletoe, Phoradendron villosum, which is a different species from the European mistletoe, Viscum album, venerated by druids. The host tree is not adversely affected by the mistletoe except that branches that carry heavy growth may break from the added strain.

	More turkey vultures. This is a rare photo because the upper bird is actually beating its wings. Most of the time they just hold them stretched out, only using minute movements to steer. The top of the wing is black like most of the rest of the bird. It's just the sunshine that makes it look white in this picture.

Here one of the trails that connects the Thermalito and Ridgeline trails goes through some live oaks.

	We've reached the Ridgeline trail. That's what the marker says. Now it's just straight south along the Ridgeline Trail until we come to the Oak Tree Trail heading down to the valley floor. You can that it's getting late because the sun shines almost horizontally on the signpost. Soon Sunol Ridge will cut off the sunlight.

The shadows are getting longer and the colour of the light changes.

	Looking south we can see a single oak tree in the distance and beyond it only hazy shades of blue.

As I got closer I realised that I had taken a picture of this oak from a point on the Thermalito trail earlier in the walk. I still like the way the light and shadow sculpts the hills.

	Another oak, this one deciduous. The haze is picking up the pink from the setting sun.

Here we've come to the olive groves. The sky between the trees is pink while the silvery leaves are glowing in the fading light.

	In between the trees the grass looks even greener than before.

Looking south, the pinkish light comes from the right while the sky in the east is blue still.
	If the previous picture was too subtle, this one will give you more definition. I had to hurry down the Oak Tree trail but by the time I got to the car it was pitch dark. It was lucky that I had taken a small flashlight from one of the caches so that I could find my way the last bit.