Angel Island, Muir Woods, Alcatraz
This was a double-header day with a few extra innings to boot. With that baseball metaphor in mind, today’s first game was played on an historic island christened by a Spanish mariner in 1775 as Isla de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles. Located in the northern reaches of San Francisco Bay, Angel Island today is the perfect place to begin an in-depth exploration of the natural and human history of this magnificent inland waterway. During the morning, a few of us hiked to the top of the island for a 360-degree panoramic view of the Bay, while most strolled more leisurely around the perimeter of the island. The goal of the history-walkers was Camp Reynolds, an army installation founded in 1863 during the early days of the American Civil War.
Today’s second game was a real crowd-pleaser. We spent the afternoon hiking through an awesome grove of old-growth redwoods named in honor of the Scottish-born father of the American conservation movement. To visit Muir Woods is to be rejuvenated. We experienced there, surrounded by the silence and the grandeur of these noble trees, what John Muir invited all his fellow countrymen to do more than a century ago. Enter these sanctuaries of nature, Muir said, “and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”
The day’s extra innings came as night fell across the Bay and the National Geographic Sea Lion circled the infamous “rock” known as Alcatraz. We recalled the days when this lonely outpost was a residence of such notorious criminals as Al Capone, “Machine Gun” Kelly, and Robert Stroud “the birdman of Alcatraz.”
