Shoreline Park in Mountain View has been a constant companion since we moved to the Bay Area. It, along with Rancho San Antonio County Park in Cupertino, has been the destination of choice whenever we wanted to hike but couldn’t think of a place in a hurry. After we returned from India, we went for a hike there again over the Labor Day weekend. The place was crowded around the boathouse, but we lost most of the crowds, once we started the hike towards Embarcadero.

The centerpiece of the park is the lake and the boathouse. They are also the most crowded. As you get away from there, the beauty of the backwaters of the Bay, the marshes and the innumerable birds that inhabit the place soothe away your daily stresses. It is a bird watcher’s delight and early in the morning or towards dusk, you can see lots of people with binoculars and cameras on tripods trying to capture a moment with the feathered ones.

The wetlands include two tidal marshes and two sloughs among other things. The vegetation around is beautiful wildflowers interspersed with hardy looking vegetation such as the one in the picture below.

The hike from the boathouse to the Embarcadero parking lot is quite flat and around 3 miles, one way. Vistas of East Bay and the surrounding mountains greet you everywhere you look. Pelicans, Herons, Cranes and all kinds of ducks can be commonly seen.

I’ll be sad to see the tomato season end. It has been a bountiful first year in our vegetable garden with tomatoes, eggplants, bellpeppers and chillies. The cherry tomatoes were particularly sweet.

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