Sunol Regional Wilderness: Indian Joe to Canyon View With Wildflowers!
It’s been unusually warm out these past two weeks and Poppy and I have taken advantage of the weather and wildflowers are popping up even more now. With the warm weather comes cravings for more trimmed down versions of my favorite recipes–which reminds me, I will be posting more up very soon.
We frequent Sunol a lot (if you haven’t noticed already) and we usually go one of two ways: We park at the backside lot then head toward the front entrance then loop back to our starting point.Or we park in the back lot and start there.
Today, we decided to take the first route and trekked toward the entrance. We stopped at the bridge to throw some rocks over (Poppy makes it a point to pick up every rock in sight before we get to the bridge.) I also have Gus with me and I’m constantly maneuvering holding his leash, holding Poppy’s hand (filled with rocks, with my hiking poles under my arm. I may have caught the bottom part of my pole in Gus’ collar and poked my child in the head. But just picture this a moment.
This hike is definitely harder if you have a child on your back but this is the best season to hike here, in my opinion, because everything is greener. If you don’t have a small child, your older kids will love the hike and parents will get a workout.
Gus ahead of us on the rocky trail surrounded by grass and wildflowers
The trail will veer right and start to flatten once the trail post for Canyon View is visible so keep climbing a bit more. There’s a pond filled with water below, and although it’s a steep downward trek, I had to see if the turtles were sunbathing on the wood. So we took a small detour to check it out. We found a cattle trail and used it to navigate our way down and so I wouldn’t lose my footing on the rough slope. Halfway down, I began to realize how much I’ll dread going back up the way I came. It’s always easier going down than coming back up.
Soaring above were some turkey vultures giving us a show
Detour to a pond off the Canyon View trail
After we got toward the end of the trail, we started to hear the roaring water from Little Yosemite. We took a short break near the water and had a snack before making our way back to the the fire road. After about a mile or so we took the stream side trails so we’d be closer to nature. We finished over 4 miles and I was thinking of my cool water and snack waiting for me in the truck. I imagine Poppy was thinking about taking her leggings off and going home in a fresh diaper. We had such an amazing hike and can’t wait to come back with the family again.
