A favorite outdoor place is in the heavily populated San Francisco Bay Area, but even those who are familiar with regional trails usually don’t know what I’m talking about when I say I’ve gone for a hike at Phleger Estate. Truth be told, I had never heard of it either and would not have been able to find the hidden trailhead if a friend hadn’t shown me where it was. Phleger Estate is the southernmost segment of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, a second-growth redwood forest that is only occasionally accessed by hikers from the more heavily visited Huddart Park near Woodside. I go in a different way to a more remote section, where it’s common for me not to see another human all day even on warm, sunny weekends. On a recent hike there, I was appreciating the patterns of wood and took these photos.

Bark patterns on a madrone tree

Bark beetle gallery on a fallen Douglas fir