Redwoods in Oakland?!

When one thinks of Oakland, redwood trees are probably the last thing that comes to mind. Actually, forests of any kind never came to our minds when we thought of Oakland. We know that those Oakland Hills folks live pretty large, but this is still a city that we pretty much avoid at all costs. There's just not much there that interests us. Or, so we thought.
A few months ago, while at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, I was flipping through a book devoted to wilderness in the Bay Area. In one chapter, I came across some amazing photos of trails through some beautiful redwood groves. "Ah, Marin..." I thought. "Or maybe the Coastal Range..." I corrected myself. Then, I looked at the photo caption. 'Redwood Regional Park, Oakland' it read. "What?!" I did a double-take, making sure that that caption was actually for that photo and the city name that I was reading beside the word 'redwood' was actually Oakland. It was.
Most of the ridge above the East Bay cities is preserved as parks and open space. Oakland is no exception. A few regional parks connect in the forested hills above Oakland and one of them is this park with its stand of 2nd and 3rd generation redwood trees along a year-round creek. Unbelievable as it may sound, this forest once had mighty redwoods that were so enormous that they were used a navigational landmarks by ship captains sailing into the Bay. Those old growth redwoods are gone but the young redwoods that have replaced them are still a sight to behold.
Eager to see this relatively inland grove of redwoods for ourselves, we visited Redwood Regional Park this afternoon. Rai was excited -- this was his first hike in a long, long time! We used to go hiking with him all the time but little Ko has worn us down so much that we haven't been out hiking since he was born. So, for Ko, this was his very first hike and there's no better way for the littlest Sequoia boy to begin a lifetime of hiking than to visit a park devoted to protecting sequoia trees. We were impressed. This is a park that we will be sure to visit every time we find ourselves in the Oakland area!