High Point Cellars

Napa County

Height: 4200 feet

Distance: 9 miles round trip

We tried twice for this hike since the first time we got a late start and made it about 5 miles up and releaized we were not going to make it before dark. We had to make the decision to drive back the hour and a half home and back the next morning to give it one more shot. It was a beautiful chilly day and perfect for a nice hike. Although 9 miles and a steady increase the whole way, the road is a fire road making it not a very techinal hike. The trail starts at the Robert Louis Stevensen State park a beautiful park that marks the location of where the famous writer spent his honeymoon in 1880. The trail has a lot of switch backs showing beautiful views around each corner. The best part about the hike was hitting some wineries on our way home… a nice reward to a day of hiking.

This was a very quick and easy high point to hit. We were on our way to Tahoe for a wedding and decided we might as well see what the Sacramento County high point was like. The hike, if you can call it that, took about 15 minutes round trip. This included the time we spend taking a few pictures. The high point is a little hill in the middle of a neighborhood and the views looked out over the Sacramento Valley.

San Luis Obispo County
Height: 5,106 ft
Date Hiked: April 6th, 2008The opportunity to take off for a weekend doesn’t come along very often for us so we took the chance to get our third high point under our belts. This was by far my favorite to date, partially because we live in San Luis Obispo County so it means a little more to us. Caliente Mountain is located in the Carrizo Plain National Monument. We arrived on Friday night camped in Selby Campground and in the morning headed up the 3-mile dirt road to the start of the trail. After reading other accounts of the hike we decided to take our bikes for the 16-mile round trip trek. The bikes were a little of a hassle for me not being a bike rider but on the way back was definitely worth the effort. We choose the perfect time of year to hike Caliente Mountain, the wildflowers we in full bloom and the sights were full of color. At the top of Caliente is a WWII lookout that appears to be about to fall over if a strong wind comes along. Along the hike we saw a baby rattlesnake, horned lizard and a couple fossil shells embedded in rocks. Other than waking up the next morning a little sore, we had a great tour of the Caliente Mountain range.

San Francisco County
Height: 927 ft
Date Hiked: March 10, 2008We decided to visit Mount Davidson on our way home from Santa Rosa. Mount Davidson is easy to get to right off of 19th ave in San Francisco. Mount Davidson is most recognizable due to the 103ft concrete cross on top of the mountain. The cross has had quite a political presence having been burned down three times and the center of many religious and political events. The hike itself is fairly minor, only 1 mile round trip. There were a few other people at the top and understandably so, it was a clear day in San Francisco. Two high points down, fifty-four more to go!

Marin County

Date Hiked: May 13, 2007

 So begins our quest for county high points. Today we decided to go to the top of Mount Tamalpais. This was the first time up the mountain for me, but Dan having grown up in Marin County, this was one of many trips to the top of the mountain. We choose a beautiful day to take the leisurely drive up to the parking lot leaving us with only about a .6 mile round trip hike. The views are amazing! In every direction it is beautiful. Along with the views there is an interesting old forest service lookout, which was interesting to explore this was our first county high point together and was a great start to our new expedition.