Joseph D. Grant Park, Santa Clara County and Mt. Hamilton Lick Observatory

 Waxing Crescent Moon

I started the day yesterday with an excellent homemade breakfast of two eggs over medium on toasted Genesis 1:29 bread and two cups of Peets Major Dickason marching fluid. Full disclosure: I do not know what is written in Genesis 1:29 (much less by whom), but that bread makes me feel healthy and Major Dickason is, well, borderline illegal - on certain days, the second cup makes me feel invincible.

Little did I know that by following Dr. Googlie's travel instructions 70 miles north to Quimby Road east of San Jose I would feel like losing said breakfast. Those maniacs in Silicon Valley had me driving straight up, no, spirally up, from the valley floor on the steepest, curviest, drop-off-iest, narrow, two-lane road this side of Pike's Peak. My initial destination ("in one thousand feet your destination will be on your right" never sounded so good) was Joseph D. Grant County Park and my plans for the day were to hike another little piece of the Bay Area Ridge Trail and to visit the grounds of the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton. 

Since I was kind of dizzy and sort of nauseous, I paused to pee at the park, where I gained a semblance of equilibrium, and continued up the even more drop-offy road to the peak. Side note: more drop-offy than drop-off-iest is pretty durn drop-offy. Mt. Hamilton (4,213 feet) happens to be on the Nifty Nineties list. I knew from a little quick pre-trip internet reading that the observatory visitor center and the access road to the actual peak is and has been closed due to COVID, but I sure as Pepto Bismol wasn't going to drive up there again in my 71st year, thank you very much. I had no choice but to further-on.

All that said, I was very glad that a) I didn't lose my breakfast and b) I came to this beautiful and interesting place full of wonder, history, science, and sturdy locked gates. After a brief and friendly conversation with a gentlemanly security guard, I learned the rules of the day and proceeded to wander around in the allowed spaces. I love this place and if I could just learn to teleport myself up and back, I would go again and again. 

The actual peak is up there past the dome.

In better times, you can walk up this road and access the peak (under close surveillance)

.

There are amazing views in almost all directions.

I walked around the area that I was told was okay for me to be.

There is a ton of stuff to learn about the Lick Observatory and the history of the people that have lived and worked up there. It really is amazing that such a special place can be so close to a burgeoning city like San Jose and remain isolated in its quiet vigil among the stars. 

I stayed up there for about thirty minutes, absorbing Mt. Hamilton's holy vibe, and plunged back down the road. Hondo, fortunately, was made for this kind of thing, and hugged the road effortlessly. I stopped at the Twin Gates trailhead to scout the route to Antler Point. Sorry, I lied about coming up here again. If I want to visit Antler Point, another Nifty Ninety, I have to park at Twin Gates and do a 10-mile round trip hike to the Point some day soon. A little vertigo has never stopped me before, at least not that I remember.

Then it was time to find the Dutch Flat Trail in Joseph D. Grant Park to knock off an out and back 6+ miler full of ups on the out and downs on the back. The reward for the ups was a scenic view point with a table and a bench for a hard-earned picnic lunch overlooking San Jose and a long look up at Mt. Hamilton. File this spot under hashtag pretty cool, hipsters. The downs reward was a trailside bog full of wild pigs and a few blue herons. I don't know about you, but I don't see that every day.

This trail gets bonus points for an end of the hike Boo Radley tree. If you don't know what a Boo Radley tree is, then shame on you for not paying attention. 

Peace, Love, and Harper Lee in the Stars,

Jim