San Bruno Mountain

I'm always more than a little bemused and delighted by the fact that, less than 20 minutes drive through the city to the south, I can reach a barren, windswept little mountain where a dirt trail creates a nice five and an half mile loop. There's hardly ever anyone else on the trail -- and the sights are spectacular.

It was so clear today that I took some cell phone pictures. Downtown San Francisco looks like Oz.


Here's the view toward Marin County with Mt. Tamalpais and the ocean in the distance and the city neighborhood closer up.


San Bruno is a California State Park, though operated by San Mateo County. I don't know if it is on the list of parks Gov. Arnold wants to close because California Republicans refuse to pass a sensible budget. They'd rather trash our public properties than ever tax anyone for the common good. Now it looks like Schwarzenegger is backing off.

A few years ago the county announced it would close San Bruno and some other facilities several days a week, but this made little difference to a user on foot. As many have pointed out, closing parks doesn't keep people out of them, leaves the state still liable for any harm in them, and ensures there are no user fees to pay for upkeep and safety.

San Bruno has many entrances from neighborhoods, so aside from one parking lot, there probably aren't many user fees anyway, but the principle remains the same. I'm certainly on board to Save the Parks!