Anthony Chabot & Coyote Hills...

I took a couple of hikes this last week.
These first few photos were taken out in Chabot at Sunrise last Monday.
I parked up at the entrance to the park on Redwood Rd.
I hiked out the Redtail Trail then hung a left on Cottontail Trail which is where I found this tree.

At the bottom of the the Cottontail Trail, I turned left onto the Brandon trail which is where I found a couple of power towers.

Next, I was to turn left onto the Deertail Trail,
but I decided to hike a bit past the junction up to one of my favorite spots in the park.
This one corner on the Brandon Trail gives you this unbelievable View.
Both the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges and also Downtown San Francisco.

Back over to the Deertail Trail, (Man is this trail steep!).
At the top is a great view of the hills heading out to Contra Costa and Mt. Diablo.

From here is was a left onto the Redtail Trail and back to the truck.
I did find this cool berry tree of sorts just before I got back to the parking lot.

On Thursday, I was driving from Concord to Oakland and rather that getting caught in the Caldecott mess,
I headed over the hill and caught this sunset on the way down into Berkeley.

On Friday, I hiked out to Coyote Hills in Union City and took some shots.
This first photo is of this crumbling stone peak that overlooks the parking lot.

Next, I headed out to the South East side of the park and up the hill towards the reservoir.
While I was setting up to try and get some sunset shots, this guy rode by me up the hill on a Mountain Bike.
I asked him if I could take a couple of shots of his speedy decent and he said "Shoot away."
This is my favorite of the burst shots that I took.
I really like the sense of speed you get from this one.

These last couple of photos are of the sunset reflecting off the old salt ponds and the Bay.
In the top photo, it almost looks like snow.

These last couple of photos were taken Saturday Evening on the ridge overlooking San Leandro and The Bay.
The last bit of the afternoon sun was lighting up the tips of the petals on the California Poppy.

Here the sun was fighting it's way through the smoke that had come up from all the fires going in SoCal.

Well, that's all for this week.
See you again soon.

Chabot Ridge...

This first photo was taken in the parking lot where I work.
They are cooling fins on an electrical transformer.

These next couple of photos were also taken in the parking lot of my office.
The water droplets in the first photo were residing on the back of my truck.
The electrical tower in the second photo stands in a field behind my shop.
I really like the color bands of the clouds behind the tower.

This photo was taken with a small Pentax Optio S4 in the Red Filtered, Black and White mode.

I took these photos at dawn on a ridge overlooking Castro Valley.
It's a great place to hike your dog off leash and from the ridge you get a great sunrise view in the mornings and in the evenings you can catch some great sunsets overlooking the bay.

Another Dawn on the ridge overlooking Castro Valley.
The light from the sunrise in the first photo was falling onto the dried up Artichoke Flower in the second photo and turning it a nice golden color.
I like that you can sort of see what looks like a face in the flower.
The tree in the third photo is a bit on dark and blurry side but I liked the overall foreboding look of this photo.

These photos were taken at a park in the Montclair District of Oakland.

I saw this tree in the parking lot of Chipotle's in Castro Valley.
Who can resist fall colors?

These last photos were taken of my son and his friend out skating in Dublin.
I like the simplicity of the solid background color and the shadows mimicking the skaters.

Well, that's all for this week.
See you again soon.