As shown on the map below you can also access it on the west end from St James Rd. (Expand the map and make it a satellite map for more clarity). From Sheep Camp Trail on the west end you can also go down under Hwy 280 and eventually work your way over to Canada Rd.

Crystal Springs Cross Country Course, 2600 Hallmark Drive, Belmont, CA

Related Links:

• College of San Mateo
• San Mateo best things to do and map
• Maps of best hiddenSF things to do
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Located north of Hollister on Highway 252 at the bottom of Pacheco Pass, this large roadside attraction is the most impressive fruit stand you will ever see and a great pit stop for the kids.

It has been built up for over four generations who keep on adding buildings such as Casa de Restaurant (24 hr restaurant), Casa de Wine (wine tasting), Casa de Sweets, Casa de Carousel, Casa de Choo Choo (2-mile long narrow gauge railroad) and more. Watch for peacocks roaming the campus and several other entertaining “home made” sights.

The Hollister Renassance Faire is also held here every Saturday and Sunday for a month in the fall (10am-6pm, Sat-Sun, 9/13/14-10/12/14). This is an interesting excuse to visit but be advised that it can get quite crowded.
Casa de Fruta Roadside Attractions

Related Pages:

• Hollister Area Things To Do Page and Map
• Top of Page and Home Page

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Combined with the museum inside and the adjacent California Historical Park & Plaza you can get a good feel for California history. See The San Andreas Fault Walk for an extensive history & geology lesson.
Old Mission at San Juan Bautista

Related Pages:

• Hollister Area Best Things To Do Page and Map
• Morgan Hill Page and Map
• Top of Page and Home Page

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ICB is usually closed to visitors but on Labor Day Weekend you can visit more than twenty artists at work there. Their studios are open all three days of the weekend, Sat-Mon 8/30-9/1/14, 11:00 am-6:00 pm. This is the same weekend as the Sausalito Art Fair, within walking distance of the ICB building, so we recommend art lovers take in both on the same day.

Other open studio events are also held here throughout the year.
ICB Building, 480 Gate 5 Rd, Sausalito

Links: website

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• Best Sausalito Things To Do and Map
• hiddenSF links, google, yelp
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Hundreds of big boulders like this one fall into narrow canyons creating”talus” caves at Pinnacles National Park.

Pinnacles is a beautiful national park that few really know about … not yet. Hikes through rare volcanic rock spires, canyons, crags and boulder-covered caves make for a most interesting day trip. It’s approximately a 1.5 hour drive from San Jose and 2.5 hours from San Francisco. See map below and other interesting things in San Benito County to see along the way.

The main things to do are 30 miles of novel scenic trails, a bit of rock climbing, and enjoying the exceptionally varied wildlife (over 100 varieties of wildflowers, 149 species of birds, 13 species of bats, 49 mammals, 69 butterflies, 400 species of bees and 500+ species of moths). If you are lucky you might even see one of 50 endangered condors around that can soar up to 15,000 feet high at speeds up to 55 miles/hour. Condors weigh about 20 pounds and have a wingspan of about 9.5 feet making them one of the largest birds in North America.

Pinnacles has some of the most unique geology in the world that bears no resemblance to the nearby Gabilan foothills. It was born approximately 23 million years ago as a volcano near Los Angeles about 200 miles southeast of the present location. The Pinnacles two thirds of this volcano was split off by the San Andreas Fault Zone which continues to move the park northward at the rate of 2/3ds of an inch/year.

The volcanic rock fractures and millions of years of wear give a dramatic and unique appearance easily seen when hiking. For example, the trails include two talus caves.  Talus caves are formed by the openings under a jumble of giant boulders which have fallen into steep narrow canyons (resulting from sheer fractures in the volcanic rock).

A trail on the east side Pinnacles that we recommend for a start is the Moses Spring-Rim Trail Loop starting at the Bear Gulch Day Use Area, at end of the road on the east side. It is a 2.2 mile loop with a 500 foot elevation gain that is doable in about 1.5 hours. This is a good quick way to see rock formations, a talus cave (Bear Gulch cave open seasonally, a proper flashlight is required), and the reservoir.

Pinnacles National Park

Hiking in Pinnacles National Park. See a person at the bottom right.

Location: East side via Hwy 146 which is accessible from Hwy 25 about 35 miles south of Hollister. The west side is accessible via Hwy 101.
Admission: $5/car
Hours: Open year round 9 am-4 pm daily. The automatic gate at the west entrance opens each morning at 7:30 am and closes at night; you can get out after it closes but can’t get in. We recommend getting there early in the morning if you can to help reduce heat and crowds.
Entrances: There are two separate unconnected entrances, one on the east side with a campground and one on the west side. We’ve only been to the east side.
Best Season: Most popular from mid February to early June when the weather is most comfortable and wildflowers show off best. However, weekends are very crowded then. (e.g., 2000+/day vs 300-/day).
Worst Season: Summers are very hot, often over 100 degrees. September-January is the slower rainy season. During any season you are warned to carry plenty of water on your hikes as an important safety precaution.
Pets: Leashed pets are allowed in picnic areas but not on trails. Given the heat and rules it is probably best not to bring them unless someone is staying behind at the campsite in an air conditioned RV. By the way, bicycles are not permitted on the trails either.
Links: website, yelp

Related Pages:

• Pinnacles website
• Hollister Area Best Things To Do Page and Map
• Morgan Hill Page and Map
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4th of July Hollister Motorcycle Rally

The event runs Friday-Sunday, July 4th-July 6th, 2014, in downtown Hollister. It is centered on San Benito Street near historical Johnny’s Bar & Grill (between 4th Street & 7th Street and between Monterey Street & Sally Street). See more about the 2014 Hollister Rally including a detailed schedule and map.

Last year there were some 150,000 in attendance. As summarized by one biker from San Francisco … it’s all about “the pipes, the bikes and the babes.” The Hollister City Council voted to bring it back bigger and better than ever since it’s also about the added bucks being made by local merchants in this agricultural town of 35,000.

As to the mythology being celebrated, back on July 4th, 1947, there were only 4,000 motorcyclists partying in a town of about 4,500 … and the bikers did not take over the town though they did have much harmless fun such as doing wheelies in the streets and riding into bars (with the barkeep’s permission). Nonetheless, the bikers image as lawless wild ones was established forever by exaggerations about the event promulgated later by newspaper reporters and by Marlon Brando’s 1953 movie “The Wild Ones.”
Hollister Motorcycle Rally (around Johnny’s Bar & Grill)

526 San Benito St, Hollister, CA
Links: website, yelp

Related Pages:

• Hollister Area Best Things To Do Page and Map
• History of the real Wild Ones – An article based on interviews with eye witnesses. And more history.
• Official Hollister Rally website
• Johnny’s Bar & Grill – Unoffical headquarters of the 4th of July Motorcycle Rally. The Boozefighters Motorcycle Club have a reunion here every year in honor of the famous 1947 Rally and their former leader whose ashes are displayed on the wall.
• Morgan Hill Best Things To Do Page and Morgan Hill Map 
• Top of Page and Home Page

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The FREE 2014 concert season starts Sunday, 4/26/2014, and continues most Sundays until the finale on Sunday, 10/4/2014. The concerts start at 1:00 pm on Sundays and last about 1.5-2 hours. They are played in the Band Shell in the Music Concourse between de Young Museum and the California Academy of Sciences. See map below for exact location.

Note: On Saturday & Sunday, 6/7/14-6/8/14, from 11 am -5 pm each day, was the Golden Gate Park Band Festival which featured 11 different bands.  See more details.

You can find several food trucks for snacks and restrooms behind the Band Shell. There is also a wide variety of other fun things to do in or near Golden Gate Park as well.
Golden Gate Park Band Stand

Links:  upcoming concerts, band festival

Related Pages:

• Golden Gate Park Things To Do and Map
• Ocean Beach Things To Do and Map
• Outer Sunset/Judah Street Things To Do and Map
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A view from Lakeview Trail

Walking Lakeview Trail above Anderson Lake

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Picnic at the Presidio. SF Bay in Background.

The Presidio’s main parade ground grass lawn makes a great picnic site. We’ve been several times and picnicking here is one of those very pleasant, low key “only in San Francisco” experiences complete with beautiful weather & views. This year (2014)  it is much more crowded (still nice however) and the City is now charging $1.25/hr for parking (still plenty of nearby parking, at least behind the buildings, however).

Off the Grid has selected some excellent gourmet food stands. For example, we have enjoyed Sugarfoot Grits, Rosamunde Sausage Grill, Humphry Slocumbe’s ice cream with attitude (e.g., secret breakfast, bourbon & corn flake flavored ice cream), and Johnny Donuts out of San Rafael. See current food stands for more details.

Coffee, wine, beer and even champagne are also freely available at stands. So we recommend you bring a blanket and buy some food.  Several nearby things to do after lunch include The Presidio and walking The Marina including Crissy Field.
Picnic at the Presidio

Related Pages:

• The Presidio Best Things To Do Page and Map
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Walking down Devil’s Slide Trail. The ocean is to the left.

An ocean view from Devil’s Slide Trail.

Devils Slide Trail
(between Pacifica & Montara, CA)

Devil’s Slide Trail, which opened in 2014 and is now part of the California Coastal trail, provides easy access to world-class views  of the rugged Pacific Coastline. See map and the related links below for more information.

Pedestrians, bicycles, leashed dogs, and equestrians are allowed on this new, big, beautiful, 1.3 mile long (each way),  multi-use paved trail built over the treacherous old Highway 1 at Devil’s Slide.  A trailhead can be found at each end of the new Devil’s Slide Bypass Tunnel (aka the Tom Lantos Tunnel which opened in 2013 and is 4200′ long, the 2d-longest in California).

Some of the most interesting aspects are the very steep hillsides which hide a variety of birds, the ocean views which even include whales in season,  and the geology which shows the striations of crushed rock pushed upwards and twisted almost vertical by fault line forces.

The trail is definitely worth checking out at least once.  It will probably become a world-class attraction once more tourists hear about it.

Expect parking problems especially weekends since the county forecasts 80,000 visitors/year (225/average day) even though there are only two small parking lots (24 spaces near the southern trailhead and 18 spaces near the northern entrance). Arrive early (but after 8 am) to increase your chances.  Or there is a free weekend shuttle ride schedule from Pacifica (see below) which may help a little.
Devils Slide Trail Trailheads

Related Links:

• Devil’s Slide Trail Map  - See detail at bottom right.
• Trail Brochure, Directions & Hours  - Parking lots open at 8 am.
• City of Pacifica free weekend parking shuttle schedule (see free weekend shuttle on right hand side)
• Interactive map & directions  to the 8,900 acre Devils Slide Coast Public Lands area between Half Moon Bay and Pacifica
• Check out great trails nearby: the 7-10 mile round trip Montara Mountain Hike discussion & pictures and the 2-mile round trip Grey Whale Cove Trail
• Also see Half Moon Bay coastal trails and map for HiddenSF’s best things for locals to do along the Half Moon Bay Coast line
• hiddenSF links, google, yelp
• Maps of Montara Area and Pacifica Area
• Maps of best hiddenSF things to do
• Top of page and Home page

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