Several weeks after hiking in Garin, I had time for another hike. Once again, I was hoping to get some photos with a little fall color. Every year for the last 10 years or so, Maureen and I have put together a calendar with our photos to give as Christmas presents. I like to try to pick photos that fit the seasons, and we didn't have any that looked like fall or winter. I knew that along the creeks in Sunol there were a lot of sycamores and maples, so that's where we went.
It was not a nice day -- cold and overcast, and threatening to rain. But since I had the time, I may as well go anyway. Darby and I started off from the park headquarters, and wandered around a bit looking for promising scenes along the creek. I didn't find much. The flat lighting made everything kind of dull. We headed up the Indian Joe Trail. I was thinking of going all the way up to the top of the hill at Cerro Este, and looping back down the other side. Soon we found a nice place along the creek with yellow maple leaves and lots of dry brown sycamore leaves on the ground, and I took a few photos. I thought I was done, but as I started walking up the trail, I noticed the bright green moss on a leaning sycamore trunk, and stopped for one more shot -- which turned out to be the best of the bunch.
The trail gets steeper as it continues up the creek, and my progress slowed way down. I remembered hiking up here a year or two ago aiming for the cave rocks, but getting tired and giving up. This time I wanted to see if I could make it all the way, so I pushed on. I was surprised when I came upon the rocks just a hundred yards or so beyond where I turned back before.
The cave rocks are a jumble of house-sized rocks outcropping from the hillside. The spaces between them form small caves. I remember coming here nearly 30 years ago with my young sons. We had a great time climbing around on the rocks. I hadn't been here since then. I hadn't seen anyone else on the trail so far, but here there was a dad with his two small boys enjoying the rocks much like we did.
I enjoyed looking around the rocks, but I realized that I was pretty tired, and going all the way over the hill was not very appealing. We headed down, taking a connecting trail over to the hayfields road and going back down that way. Soon, the dad and two boys were behind me, and the younger boy kept running ahead, catching up with me, then waiting for the others.
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