Hood Mountain Regional Park

This park has been closed for about half of the 12 years we've lived here, first for a flood that washed out the road and twice for fires. The first of the fires, the Nun's Fire (named for Nun's Canyon Road where it started) in 2017 burned on the ridge above our house but never descended to our side of the mountain. The second, the Glass Fire (also a road between Calistoga and our part of Santa rosa burned right down our own Santa Rosa Creek and was responsible for all the damage in our neighborhood.

We noticed that the sign at the bottom of Los Alamos Road saying that the park was closed has been removed, and today we decided to go check it out. Our objective was the creek at the bottom of a steep descent from the ridge line. Although the entrance to the park is only about a mile as the crow flies from our house, the drive up Los Alamos Road is steep, winding and very exposed, ending in a single track section at the top. There are a couple of turns which are totally blind as the steepness of the hill and a curve block any view of the other side, giving one the feeling of being suspended in space. And the mystifying road signs* I published years ago remain,  a bit squint and even less explanatory about that they could mean.

It has been almost four years since the fire, and there are many signs of recovery. New houses have replaced the scattered few that are actually visible from the road. I'm sure there are a few others tucked into the hills and up steep dirt driveways. My favorite one is next to the entry to the park.* What a view it has, sitting solidly on a knoll at the top of the hill,  but I wouldn't want to travel that road in a rainstorm, and evacuation from the fire must have been terrifying.

The survival of the trees is another story. The understory is green with Himalayan blackberries and extremely healthy looking poison oak. Many of the oaks didn't survive and their ghost skeletons are a stark reminder of of nature's destructive power, but others have managed varying degrees of survival.. The different kinds of conifers were less fire resistant and we didn't see a single survivor.

We reached the creek to discover that it is little changed from what we remember from our walks there with Ozzie, other than a few piles of cleared brush. At this time of year it is a safe, unpolluted bit of water and we were pleased to see Spike take to it like a spaniel.*

It was quite warm by the time we trudged back up the trail to the car. A track has been cleared and there were signs that some large trees had been removed, but little else has been done to clear brush or remove many logs that will eventually float down the creek and wind up lodged in the creek across the street from our house.

It gave us a good idea of what lies ahead of the many cyclists we see pedaling above our house on Los Alamos Road. Not a ride for the faint of heart or weak of body.