Light Shines Through
In deep, dense forest, light struggles to filter through even on the sunniest day. The blended aroma of moist soil, tree bark, and moss is most intoxicating in the darkest places. My childhood summer vacations in the Adirondacks were often spent walking under a forest canopy wearing a rain parka over a thick sweatshirt. It was a miraculous treasure when the sun broke through to the forest floor. Here in California, Muir Woods is one of the most popular places to see a redwood forest. I have visited many times, often in late afternoon, when fading daylight was falling at an angle. That light is beautiful to the eye, but clear images are harder to capture with a camera in scarce light. I recently visited Muir Woods earlier in the day, when the summer sun was shining straight down. There was enough light for my camera to focus, and once in a while a glorious burst of sun came down on the trail through a gap in the trees. Enjoy dark moody trails for their unique atmosphere, and celebrate unexpected bright spots when you stumble upon them. Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s Hike Notes, Muir Woods National Monument, takes readers to Marin County to one of the most popular places to see redwoods. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 206: Muir Woods National Monument
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Places Ingrained
Pine trees line the curve of a lake. White sparkles shimmer over deep blue water. Fallen branches ornament the narrow shore. The lines of the treetops converge at a downward angle where the lake bends in the distance, countered by a low mountain top rising from the gap. It is a perfect, quiet lake, like those in the old postcards of the Adirondack Mountains I treasured as a kid. But this is not a postcard, and it is not the Adirondacks. I have lived in California and been exploring trails and nature sites in Marin County for more years than I spent growing up in rural Upstate New York, but when I look at the lakes of the Marin Watershed, love for the natural surroundings of my youth wells up. I am transported back to my childhoods camping in the lakes and old mountains of the Adirondacks. Living in the past? No. Allowing powerful sensory memories to unleash the strengths I developed while immersed in the natural beauty of my childhood? Yes. Let yourself reminisce about the times and places that made you the person you are today. The quiet embers of early lessons and insights may glow strongly again. Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s Hike Notes, Kent Lake from Shafter Bridge, take readers to one of the lovely lakes of the Marin Watershed. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 112: Kent Lake from Shafter Bridge View from the Other Side
Standing under the shade of a cypress tree, I look out to see a flock of brown pelicans flying in front of blue sky and puffy white clouds. The blue water below is marked by white diagonal lines, sailboats leaning in competition. Looming in the back is the Golden Gate Bridge, beyond that, the skyline of San Francisco. I hear only the sound of the breeze through the branches of the cypress grove, and the occasional bird song. The densely packed city feels like a thousand miles away. Living in a city can be exciting in both good ways and bad. Exploring historical sites, experiencing cultural events, and getting to know various neighborhood shops and restaurants can keep a person busy for years. But urban problems can pop up in the cities we love, and they do: Noise, homelessness, crime, parking and traffic problems. It’s important to step away from city life and immerse ourselves in nature. The Marin Headlands—where I stand looking back at the city across the water—is just a short drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. Getting a bit of distance from our usual space and looking back from across the way helps put our lives and the world in perspective. Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s Hike Notes, Bicentennial Campground-Marin Headlands, a spot where people can have an overnight camping experience or just a picnic area visit, with stunning views. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 205: Bicentennial Campground-Marin Headlands Close Comforts
My younger son, who is on the autism spectrum, needs to get out in the world and burn up some energy every day. Now a young adult, he still needs support in all facets of life. Heat wave or atmospheric river, we get out for a walk every day that he’s not at his support program. Weather aside, what if mom and dad are under the weather? We’ve seen a surprising upsurge in various viruses this summer, and our house was hit, too. Whichever parent feels the least sick at the moment is in charge of outings. Lower energy levels mean a shorter walk closer to home. As a kid, I had favorite walks around my home in the Adirondack Foothills that brought comfort when I was bouncing back from a cold or flu. A stroll down the big hill to the apple trees—maybe to the barbed wire fence that marked the border with our neighbor’s farmland—gave me an uplifting dose of fresh air and bright sky. Now I live at the western edge of San Francisco, and one of our easy comfort walks is at the old ruins of Sutro Baths, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. On normal days, we walk down and back up the steep hills to the baths, but on low energy days, we stick to a short easy walk above the baths that features amazing views of Seal Rock, the Cliff House, and ships heading in and out of San Francisco Bay. This week’s Hike Notes from the archives is Sutro Baths, a historic site that once included various seawater bathing pools combined with museum-like exhibits of treasures from around the world, and now is an open space that looks out to the Pacific. Where are your nearby comfort walks? Find an easy, special place to restore yourself with a breath of fresh air and a view, even if only stepping out the door to look at the sky and listen for birds! Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 70): Sutro Baths Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. See products with inspiring designs that support the efforts of HikingAutism under Support/Shop. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 Walking Through Hallowed Rows
I love a good cemetery. As a kid, I not only liked classic monster movies and things that go bump in the night, but felt a special stir of the heart from the first cemetery I walked through. I grew up near a wonderful cemetery in my hometown of Holland Patent, New York, rows of old gravestones on rolling hills surrounded by trees that turn orange and gold in autumn, bare branches black against the snow in winter. My favorite cemetery from childhood, however, is the one my grandmother took us to on Tug Hill, New York, a place famous for long, harsh winters. Gravestones were tilted, some overgrown with grape vines, older graves sunk into the ground. That cemetery is hard to find even for those who know about it. Best epitaph ever, Where you are now, I once was, too. Where I am now, you too will be, was carved on a headstone hidden behind a fallen tree at the back of the graveyard. When traveling around Asia in my twenties, a fellow traveler from England told me that if I ever went to London, I had to visit Highgate Cemetery. I never forgot that suggestion and went there over thirty years ago. I liked it so much that I returned again on a recent trip to visit my son who works in London. I wondered if the powerful feeling of that iconic cemetery would strike me again. The moment I set foot on Highgate’s grounds, its atmospheric spirit whooshed through me. A fox looking back at us from atop a grave was pure magic. Highgate Cemetery is a treasure trove of moody monuments and jumbled pathways with fallen gravestones. Cemeteries are one of my favorite places to take photographs, and favorite places to explore by walking, but I do not feature them in Hike Notes for HikingAutism.com because cemeteries deserve respectful quiet without me steering people there for hikes. I make this rare exception for Highgate Cemetery because they encourage people to visit, for a fee, so that they can maintain the grounds. This week’s highlighted hike is a World Walks contribution, Highgate Cemetery Walk, London. When my son who works in London joined me for a visit there, I nudged him to add Highgate Cemetery to the World Walks collection. HikingAutism shares mostly Northern California hikes, but readers enjoy seeing the variety of walking sites in other countries and parts of the U.S. Have a favorite walk? Share with readers in World Walks! Two or three sentences and a few photos allow other readers to share your enjoyment. See the World Walks link for how to submit your walk to share. This week’s Hike Notes is a new World Walks entry: Highgate Cemetery Walk, London Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 Jewels in the Shadow
Muir Woods with its iconic redwoods, the San Francisco Bay highlighted by Alcatraz, Angel Island and the Golden Gate Bridge, and the iconic California surf spirit of Stinson Beach. These are stunning, glorious places, stars so bright that people sometimes can’t see past them to lesser-known treasures right around the corner. In the shadow of both Mt. Tam which looms above it and the name recognition of Stinson Beach to the north, tiny Steep Ravine Beach is a hidden jewel. A small beach below the dramatic Steep Ravine cabins facing the Pacific, Steep Ravine Beach features tidepools, misty mornings, breathtaking sunsets, and even a natural hot spring. Take time to explore smaller dots on the map. You might be surprised at how many treasures are on offer away from the crowds. Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s Hike Notes, Steep Ravine Beach, leads readers to this small beach with its tide pool creatures down the paths from the Steep Ravine Cabins on Mt. Tam. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 204: Steep Ravine Beach Quiet Amidst the Hustle and Bustle
In a rare break from work and special needs mom duties, I spent a few days visiting our older son who works in London. It is remarkable that a city as vast, densely populated and complex as London can offer free access not only to countless amazing museums but also to large green spaces. The sound of the breeze blowing through the leaves of deciduous trees as we walked through Green Park and St. James’s Park transported me back to my Upstate New York childhood. There are very particular sights and sounds characteristic of trees and plants at specific latitudes. On the grounds near Greenwich Observatory we saw a fox begging for picnic scraps. In Kensington Gardens we saw ducks, geese, swans, and precocious squirrels. A fox walking over a grave at Highgate Cemetery under a leafy canopy was another example of wildlife in a major city. Here in the much smaller city of San Francisco, we are also fortunate to have a wide array of green spaces and wildlife right within the city limits. Golden Gate Park covers a broad area and has many smaller gardens within its larger scope, including the Rose Garden, where one might occasionally see a coyote or raccoon walking at the periphery, or red-tailed hawks and ravens flying overhead. Take a moment to slow down and tune into the quiet green spaces around you. Your physical and mental health will thank you. Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s Hike Notes from the archives is Rose Garden-Golden Gate Park. The Rose Garden is a pretty place to stroll or rest on a bench as part of a larger walk in Golden Gate Park, and exhibits many lovely varieties of roses in season. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 108): Rose Garden-Golden Gate Park, one of many free flower and memorial gardens in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, where a variety of lovely roses can be found. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page. Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. See products with inspiring designs that support the efforts of HikingAutism under Support/Shop. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 Together Apart Again
Last time I visited Stinson Beach, a place that always makes me feel like I’m on summer vacation, it was November. That was two and a half years ago. My older son was about to move to London for his job, and our autistic younger son wanted to hold his brother’s hand. Several times during that walk, our younger son gestured like he was going to bite his brother’s arm. Our sense was that he understood that his big brother was leaving, and he was confused and upset. Siblings of special needs family members lead especially challenges lives themselves. They navigate childhood with parents spending a large percentage of time helping the child with more immediate and acute needs. Leaving one parent home to care for a family member who needs 24/7 supervision is difficult. But our non-special needs kids deserve time and attention, too. I’m taking a short break from the HikingAutism desk to visit our older son, so am posting early this week. Caregivers, remember that you deserve and need breaks. You will be able to take care of others better when you have recharged your batteries. Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s Hike Notes, Stinson Beach, takes readers to an iconic California beach, as welcome to beach walkers as it is to surfers and boogie boarders. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 147: Stinson Beach Ups and Downs Together
As a kid growing up in the Adirondack Foothills, I loved walking alone through fields of high green grass in summer, under red maples highlighted by golden light in autumn, and over pristine snow-covered paths in winter. (“Alone” means without fellow humans, but my faithful beagle Spike often joined me.) I also loved walking with my dad, brothers and friends. The camaraderie that comes with walking together—sometimes talking, sometimes not—is a priceless treasure. My younger son struggled to overcome sensory overload and other autism-related challenges to get out in the world, despite the lure of natural beauty here in Northern California. Walks by our family of four became akin to my walks alone as a kid, though our isolation was not a choice. Through my HikingAutism.com website, a local autism organization asked me to offer group hikes and introduce area trails to other families. Now my family enjoys the privilege of walking and talking together with many wonderful families in the autism and disabilities community. These hikes provide opportunities to share the ups and downs of our lives as we share the ascents and descents of the trails. Walking alone is a highlight of my life, but walking together with others expands our hearts and minds while also lifting our spirits. If you have the chance, invite someone to walk together! This week’s Hike Notes, Hidden Villa-Los Altos Hills, introduces readers to the lovely Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills, featuring picnic areas, gardens, pigs, goats, sheep and other farm animals, a creek under shady trees, and a wide variety of hiking trails to choose from. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 203: Hidden Villa-Los Altos Hills Patience
Three years ago I read that a historic garden area in Fort Mason was being recultivated. I get excited when I hear about new parks opening, upgrades to nature preserves, new hiking trails… anything new to explore at scenic visiting places. Camera in hand, I went to check out the Black Point Historic Gardens in Fort Mason shortly after hearing about it. The views over the San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz were stunning, but the flowers were few and far between. The garden renovation was just starting, so I took photos but realized it would take time before the gardens were ready to feature as a Hike Notes post. Two years later, I brought the camera to the gardens again. There were many lovely flowers blooming, enough to use for a hike post, but the gardens still felt a bit like a work in progress. A year after that, we visited again. Every visit offered a different combination of colored petals highlighting the same classic San Francisco Bay scenery. The gardens felt like they were still under development the third year in, but seeing the ongoing changes is part of the joy of visiting. It takes patience for people to grow into their best selves as well. Blossoming and evolving as humans takes time. Life is more joyful when we give ourselves and people we love time to fulfill our promise. Keep putting one foot forward! This week’s Hike Notes, Black Point Historic Gardens-Fort Mason, leads readers on a hillside walk along historic flower gardens with a view of Alcatraz, Aquatic Park and the San Francisco Bay. Check the Home page for the broader background story. Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Browse hikes on the main Hikes page or on the Hike Search by Area page, and scroll to the bottom of each hike page to see full photo galleries. If you’d like to support HikingAutism, check out the Support/Shop page! Check out selected articles and interviews under Media. Click World Walks to see or share favorite family-friendly walks! Stay in touch with Lisa Louis and HikingAutism via Contact. The Links page lists a loose collection of helpful information links. Feel free to share and follow on Facebook at HikingAutism, follow on Twitter at @HikingAutism and Instagram at lisalouis777 New this week: Hike Notes 187: Black Point Historic Gardens-Fort Mason |
Lisa LouisSharing insights and hiking highlights (Hikes, Hike Search by Area) from the special needs caregiver front in San Francisco. Archives
July 2024
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