Thanks to my Utah and Virginia trips I actually completed my 2021 hiking goal already. I had a day off though and hadn’t gone out in a while so I referred back to my state parks list. Henry Cowell State Park is near Santa Cruz, so not too far away. I picked the Observation Deck trail because it is 5 miles out and back with 600 feet of elevation gain which seemed casual enough.

For this hike we originally were intending to go to Memorial County Park but I discovered upon arrival that park is closed from the fires still. For what it’s worth I wasn’t in charge of planning this hike! But also shame on Google for navigating me all the way there and not telling me it was closed! There was no reception there so I was almost unable to reconnect with my friends.

I picked this hike off of Google Maps so I don’t feel great about including it in the 2021 collection. That said, I believe we still clocked in 2 or 3 miles and there were some pretty steep parts. Anyways, Mori Point is part of Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and is located in Pacifica. This is very, very similar to Pillar Point Bluff in its views. I would recommend Pillar Point over Mori Point though.

First post of 2021! Welcome to the new year y’all! This year my focus is definitely going to be on things inside my house or within driving distance so it is gonna be a quiet year for the blog. I’m thinking this will age better than this post from 2019… When it was coming down to the wire on my 2020 hiking goals, I heard about some of the Peninsula city parks and put them in my tracking document.