Sunday morning we drove around to the far side of Mt. Diablo, to the town of Clayton on the edge of the SF Bay Area, to hike Donner Canyon. This is a trail that starts in a kind of weird place— in
a quiet suburban neighborhood with views of a quarry in the distance. The inauspicious start is quickly left behind as the trail drops into the canyon.
The point of hiking this trail isn't the canyon. The canyon's nice, and once we gain some height farther up there are nice views back across it and to the San Francisco Bay beyond, but really the point of hiking here is to see the waterfalls on Donner Creek higher up in the canyon. The first time we hiked here, umpteen years ago, there was little but the Donner ghosts laughing at us. Would there be water here today? With heavy rains the past 6-7 weeks we figured so.
Once we started the trail we didn't even have to
figure on there being water. Donner Creek was flowing down by the entry. We've never seen that before! And the grass was so green in the canyon. And there were spots of mud.
The trail rises for 2 miles gently as it winds deeper into the canyon. We enjoyed the easy grade and the early Spring-like views all around. And speaking of that water....
...Well, the water wasn't always pretty to look at. In some places is formed large patches of mud on the trail. We figured there'd be spots like this so we laced up our boots for the trail and left a change of socks and shoes, plus a towel, in the car. And actually the mud on the trail wasn't as bad as we worried it might be.
Once we got higher up in Donner Canyon we started seeing waterfalls. And wow, there were more than we expected! Many were small, like this pleasant little one in the photo above. But it was special seeing more falls than we expected due to the recent rains.
Extra waterfalls weren't the only surprise on this hike. While I was relaxing with the sight and sound of the falls above, Hawk found something else. She called my attention to it as I climbed up from the falls.
This rock on the side of the trail looks like it's covered with lichen, a fairly common sight. In fact I walked right by it, thinking nothing of it. But Hawk told me to come back and see what that red stuff
really is.
It's alive!
...Okay, lichen is alive, too; it's a plant. But this red stuff is
bugs. It's hundreds and hundreds of ladybugs.
Update: Keep reading in Part 2
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