Windy Hill Open Space Preserve
Hike Review
I had told Cassie about the ample sunrise hiking opportunities around the Bay Area. And so, finally, I woke up early enough to take her for a sunrise hike at Windy Hill. Our initial plan was to hike from the bottom to the top of Windy Hill, but we woke up a bit late, so we instead started at the top of Windy Hill, appreciating the sunrise, then hiking in a clockwise direction to the bottom of the hill and back up.
The sunset was 100% worth the early wake-up time. The only negative was that Black Mountain was in the way of the sun, so we had to wait a few minutes after the sunrise to actually see the sun.
While the upper portion of the hike does not have much shade, the rest of the hike was either well-shaded or entirely covered in fog.
Maybe because we hiked this on Thanksgiving Day, there were many folks on the trail. Of note was this large group that caught up to us going uphill. I think of myself as a pretty strong hiker, but I was humbled to see that there were more than a few folks in the group who looked to be pushing 70. I don’t think this was the same folks from 2021 that almost matched my hiking pace… but if they were, maybe I got slower?
When we arrived at the parking lot 15 minutes before the sunrise, there was only one other car. Windy Hill itself has a sister peak, so that's where we saw the sunrise by ourselves.
What I Learned
To me, there's almost nothing more beautiful than seeing the ocean of fog interact against hills and mountains. And we got to see that the whole time we were above the cloud-sea. And then, we got to dive below that and enjoy the cool air envelop us in a hug.
While what we saw was mostly fog, we also saw that there was a layer above the fog that was purely smoke. Given how cold it had been, it was no surprise that there was so much smog.
It had been a full week or so since the previous rain, so I was surprised to see chantrelle mushrooms next to the trail. They looked a bit ripe, so we did not pick any, but it must have been the foggy conditions that had persisted that whole week that kept it damp enough for the mushrooms to thrive.
What Happened?
6.4 miles, 3 hrs 12 mins, 2129 ft of ascent
After weeks of talking about doing a sunrise hike, I finally got up early enough to take Cassie to see the sunrise. However, I got up too slowly, so instead of heading into Menlo Park, we instead headed up Highway 35 directly to Windy Hill. We hurried up to Windy Hill and we were able to enjoy the scene of serenity that greeted us as we looked out over the Bay Area. To the east, we could see Mission Peak and Mount Diablo sitting grandly above the clouds.
Cassie started to paint the scene in front of us, so I opened my ebook to read as I breathed in the crisp morning air. She painted for 15 minutes or so, and then we were off hiking downhill. Some of the paths were quite steep, so it felt like it was just us and the blue skies sometimes. But, of course, there were other hikers and joggers that we shared the trail with.
Soon, we were at the bottom, and headed back up to Windy Hill. Unlike the trail down, however, the hike up was fully in a bay tree forest, with lots of fog and foliage surrounding us and watching our every movement. Also unlike the path down, the uphill was nicely graded and nothing felt too steep. Which meant that we made steady progress in good time, or at least I thought so until we got overtaken by the really fit family.
After we got back to our car, we then made our way to Alice’s Cafe, a Highway 35 institution, for a much yummier than expected breakfast of fruit juice and breakfast burritos.
