My 6th grader's teacher asked us to to take our kids on a "field trip" and have them photograph and note observations on a variety of ecosystems. Perfect opportunity to have my daughter and two of her friends join one of my park visits. Tolay Lake Regional Park includes a working ranch with goats and cattle, and it was only opened for daily public access in recent years. I have been wanting to go here for a while, so I decided that this was a great place for their field trip! It is located about 8 miles southeast of downtown Petaluma, bordered by hills between the Petaluma River and Sonoma, and there is a $7 parking fee (unless you have an annual pass).
As we started off from the parking lot, it immediately started raining, but the girls were eager to observe and take photos, so they were not deterred by the rain. Most of the photos on this post were taken by my daughter.
Once we made it by this initial entry point, our senses were pleased with gorgeous views everywhere, including the ominous sky:
We decided to take the Causeway Trail to the East Ridge Trail to the Three Bridges Vista Point. All accessible by hiking, biking and horseback. This was a good choice because it was long, had rewarding views all along the way, and it made a gradual climb that was pleasant. The trail is mostly like a fire road type trail, and it goes through wetlands, pasture and oak woodlands. I estimate we hiked about 6 miles in total.
As we entered the pasture area, we had close encounters with the cattle who were very skeptical of our presence, but they reluctantly moved off the trail as we approached. There was a young one that postured a bit by pouncing at us, but s/he moved a way pretty quickly after that.
Then we passed alongside some vineyards, and into a mossy, verdant oak woodland:
Then our landscape opened up, and we were almost at the vista point! We stopped to have lunch at a spot with incredible views that included the Petaluma hills, San Pablo Bay and the Petaluma River:
We even saw two rainbows!
Rain and all, it was a wonderful day and incredibly beautiful. There were also lots of bird sightings including white-tailed kites, red-shoulder hawks, dark-eyed juncos and lots of other woodland birds. I highly recommend visiting this park.
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