A signpost showing two errors with the word trail

Chase a Waterfall, Castle Rock State Park

Rain is always welcome here in the Bay Area, since droughts seem to contribute to an ongoing misery. This means waterfall hikes are a special treat in the winter, as proof of enough rain to make a stream. 

Recently we drove to Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The roads wind up, inviting expensive cars to test out their speeding abilities. On our way there, an array of police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances blocked one lane of this challenging road. Assuming some car went off the cliff, we carefully resumed our journey, only to get passed by an impassioned speeder.

Climbing rock at Castle Rock State Park.
Waterfall at Castle Rock State Park

Castle Rock State Park is a destination for rock climbers and hikers. The large boulders on the Castle Rock loop trail are perfect for any climbing skill level. The hike to the waterfall overlook is 1.2 miles, out and back. You’ll walk by a stream and experience an elevation loss of 265 feet (and gain on the way back). When you arrive at the overlook you are looking down at the waterfall. So, be careful if you are afraid of heights.

The waterfall itself is not as gushing as you might come across in Yosemite or Hawaii, but nonetheless nice to listen to. 

Be prepared for an uneven path with rocks and roots poking out. 

Sunset

Parking fee is $10, preferably paid by card. The parking lot holds three restrooms and electric car chargers.  The Castle Rock State Park is open from sunrise to sunset, the address is: 15451 CA-35, Los Gatos, CA 95033. We stopped at the nearby vista point, just outside the park, for an amazing sunset. 

Have you seen the waterfall at Castle Rock State Park?

Another hike I can highly recommend is the loop trail of the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

Forbes Mill Bridge in Los Gatos.

Admire the work of young artists at Forbes Mill Footbridge

Entrance of the Forbes Mill Museum (closed) in Los Gatos.

An outside gallery, the Forbes Mill Footbridge, consists of 156 panels of local art work. The bridge connects old town Los Gatos with Forbes Mill, a former flour mill and history museum.

The Forbes Mill Bridge is mainly the overpass for Highway 17, but since 1998 it also serves as an art gallery for the Los Gatos youth. 

It started as a summer program by the Los Gatos – Saratoga recreation. Selected artwork was digitally reproduced and placed on the bridge. These murals will be exchanged over time. 

Forbes Mill Bridge in Los Gatos.

A tribute to the artists is also given on the website of the Los Gatos Local History Research Collection.

As part of the Los Gatos Creek Trail you might pass the Forbes Mill Footbridge. If you start out your hike here please take some time to admire the art.

Have you seen the murals?

Resources:

https://patch.com/california/losgatos/los-gatos-forbes-mill-footbridge-murals-to-be-re-dedicated

Do you like seeing more works of young artists? You might want to check out the County Government Center in Santa Cruz – read my post about this: Admire young artists.

Trees behind a fence

Go on a Virtual Nature Tour

Last week I gave you a collection of virtual art. This week, with John Muir’s birthday on April 21st and Earth Day April 22nd, it is natural to talk about nature in the Bay Area.

Screenshot of the Oakland Zoo grizzly bear cam.

If you are looking for animals the Oakland Zoo has some webcams for bears and elephants. On my latest visit I did not see any animals, but this might be a virtual hunt (https://www.oaklandzoo.org/webcams)? 

Screenshot of jellyfish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

I was luckier at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the otters were frolicking around (https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/live-cams/sea-otter-cam), the jelly cam mesmerized me with some minimalistic sounds and the slow movement of the jellyfish (https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/live-cams/jelly-cam). 

If your love for animals is on a smaller scale, you can watch a few YouTube videos of insects by the Essig Museum of Entomology (https://essig.berkeley.edu/bugged/). 

To explore interesting articles by Bay Area Nature magazine (https://baynature.org/category/explore/) is always a great pastime.

How about a virtual garden tour? Bringing back the Natives Garden Tour (https://www.bringingbackthenatives.net/2020-virtual-tour) will zoom you to native gardens in the Bay Area the next  three Sundays from 10 am – 3 pm, registration is required, donations are appreciated.

A virtual park experience is promised by the East Bay Regional Park District (https://www.ebparks.org/activities/digital_learning/default.htm). Park Naturalists tell you everything from how to dissect a flower to why you should count worms in your soil.

Participate in the City Nature Challenge, April 24th – 27th, 2020! You’ll have to download the free iNaturalist app and upload your findings (https://citynaturechallenge.org/).

Or how about playing a nature bingo? (https://drive.google.com/file/d/121rcsGxlSuXQ7ekmkKzEO-h9H-4xqova/view)

On May 6th you can join the live streamed walk of the Los Gator Creek, RSVP required (https://www.savedbynature.org/event-info/creek-tales-nature-walk). Saved By Nature is an amazing organization whose goal is to bring nature to the people that can’t physically go and see it themselves. In the old times this meant persons by illnesses bound to their beds. 

Screenshot of the parktracks website.

For a calming 12 minute listening experience I recommend ParkTracks, a compilation of nature sounds (https://findyourpark.com/about/news/parktracks).

There are many resources out for you to explore. Let’s all enjoy nature close to home right now, so we can flatten the curve. 

Happy Earth Day!

Judy Chicago interviewed in 2018 at the Stanford University.

Go on a Virtual Tour

Week five for shelter-in-place for the Bay Area has me going a bit stir crazy and longing for some art. I do get my daily art fix from Google’s arts & culture app. I really like the art projector where you can really zoom in on a masterpiece, for example, Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.

If you’d like to explore the local art scene without using up gas in your car (yeah we are really doing something for the climate now) here are some links to virtual tours.

Rosie Lee Thompkins crazy quilt at the BAMPFA, Berkeley.

Larry Rinder, BAMPFA Director and Chief Curator, walks us through Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective. Rosie Lee Tompkins was a quilter in a wider sense, and I am really thankful for Mr. Rinder’s explanations of her works. My favorite quilt was the crazy quilt, a style where different shapes are combined. (1 h 12 min, https://bampfa.org/rosie-lee-tompkins-slideshow#rlt-video) I recommend clicking on the link and watching it in full screen on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=232&v=T8NL3KAA8wQ&feature=emb_title).

The Hearst Museum of Anthropology has a few links to keep you busy, from online exhibits, over recorded lectures, to the sound and light archive. (https://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/hearst-from-home/).

The Oakland Museum of California (https://museumca.org/omca-at-home) and the Cantor Arts Center (https://museum.stanford.edu/museums-home) have an ‘explore from home’ section.

Time-laps installation of Sonya Rapport biorhythm at the San Jose Museum of Art.

If you want a look behind the scenes of an art museum you should click on the link for the San Jose Museum of Art (https://sjmusart.org/we-are-listening).

MACLA is bringing you Stories from La Sala (https://maclaarte.org/stories-from-la-sala/) your daily dose of contemporary LatineX art.

The NUMU invites you to take a virtual spin through their exhibitions (https://www.numulosgatos.org/virtual).

And the Palo Alto Art Center teaches virtual art classes (https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/gov/depts/csd/artcenter/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=4878).

While virtual tours cannot replace seeing artwork in person, kind of like looking at a cookbook doesn’t satisfy the need to eat, it helps in times when we are all housebound to get our minds off things.

I hope everyone is safe and healthy!

I also found some virtual nature tours to enjoy!

Call me Ishmael phone, Los Gatos library

Call me Ishmael

Call me Ishmael phone, Los Gatos library

“Press any button to hear a story from an anonymous bibliophile about a story they loved.”  This is the sentence you hear when you pick up the receiver of the old pay phone in the Los Gatos library.

Reviews are read from different book lovers. Unfortunately there was no volume button. Some recordings are hard to listen to from the recording quality and the speed of the reader. But the personal account is priceless. Some are short and sweet but most of them are true personal recollections.  

Press 0 and you’ll hear a pitch for ‘Call me Ishmael’ or if you are at home in front of your computer you can watch their YouTube video for their earlier kickstarter project.

Current book selection from Call me Ishmael, Los Gatos library

Currently the book selections are from Sarah Boynton’s Pyjama Time! , a picture book, to classics like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, to the Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

If you like to record your own review you can do this by calling 774.325.0503. On the CMI website you can also listen to featured calls.

Los Gatos library (front entrance)

A fun way of learning about new books! The personal touch of the stories makes it feel like a friend is telling you about a book they loved, and the Los Gatos library is a great place to hang and discover new books.

What book would you review?

 

Piano at Vasona Lake

Play piano in the park

I’m always on the lookout for some unexpected. A grand piano at the park, now that’s what I call unexpected!

For the third year the Santa Clara County Parks together with Sunset Piano and DC Pianos have released five pianos into five parks. They will reside in the parks until October 5th.

Piano at Vasona Lake

What a beautiful idea to combine the outdoors with music.

Here are the locations:

  • Vasona Lake by the boat rental area
  • Historic Casa Grande/New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum on the patio deck
  • Uvas Canyon near the waterfalls at the outdoor amphitheater
  • Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch’s Anglers picnic area
  • Joseph D. Grant near the historic Grant house and rose garden

 

Unfortunately I don’t play. And when I visited some of the pianos no one was playing, in fact they were covePiano at the Quicksilver Mining Museumred up.

If you are like me but you still want to experience the music head out to Vasona Lake on October 2, from 4 to 6 Sunset Piano will perform Classical, Jazz, and pop selections.

Or encourage your piano playing friends to come out.

Anyone up for picnic, park and piano?

Firefighter helmet

When it rains – enlighten yourself

The day I explored Los Gatos it was raining. So, the cute upscale outdoor shopping district wasn’t  too much fun.

But what is the cultivated person supposed to do when it rains? Right, go to a museum. The NUMU  is a little gem. (Not only on rainy days!)

The high school exhibition Social Matters blew me away with the depth of the pieces. High schoolers from around the area painted, photographed, sculpted and wrote a piece about the art and the social matter that they were depicting.

Adi Lahav’s Fetal PositionTake for example Adi Lahav’s Fetal Position, a piece that speaks for itself.


Next was the hat exhibit, different hats with tools to make them.  Although just a one room collection a very interesting look at the history of different headgear and tops.

 

The More Than Your Selfie exhibit has, amongst other pieces of various techniques a very emotional video from Christina Nunez.

She tells her life story and how she used selfies as a therapeutic device.Cristina Nunez selfie with her mother

Art-o-matAs a special treat you can buy yourself some little art from the art-o-mat. I did not have $5 in coins, but sure will bring some next time! Have you ever used an art-o-mat?

You can visit the NUMU on 106 E. Main Street, Los Gatos, CA. Opening hours are Friday to Sunday from 10 am until 4 pm.

What is your favorite museum?