Shell Ridge, Walnut Creek, CA

firedancing4life

My allergies made me pay for this hike/shoot. The spring color were great.
I'm heading to yosmite at the beginning of May so I needed some experience hauling my new gear. Conclusion: it sucks. :rofl

Enjoy.

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Dogdots

Spring and allergies seem to go together

Nice photos....thanks for sharing them.

Grumpy_one

Holy cow!
I grew up hiking those hills. If you live in the area I lived on Hopi Ct. Those are great shots. Well done. Mt. Diablo was a favorite place to visit. I used to ride my dirt bike all over those hills. That was over 35 years ago. Farmers and cows were plentyfull. Thanks for the memories.

firedancing4life

Grumpy_one wrote:

I grew up hiking those hills. If you live in the area I lived on Hopi Ct. Those are great shots. Well done. Mt. Diablo was a favorite place to visit. I used to ride my dirt bike all over those hills. That was over 35 years ago. Farmers and cows were plentyfull. Thanks for the memories.

wow...you were really close!

I live off Olympic now...close to downtown. I'd never been up to Shell Ridge before...really awesome. Some sweet views. Mt Diablo is also great. I have a couple galleries from there...I was way more noobie with the camera than I am now.

Glad you liked the pictures.

slflash

Great shots Kevin,
Looks like a fun place to go hiking! Enjoy your trip to Yosemite.

Grumpy_one

firedancing4life wrote:

wow...you were really close!

I live off Olympic now...close to downtown. I'd never been up to Shell Ridge before...really awesome. Some sweet views. Mt Diablo is also great. I have a couple galleries from there...I was way more noobie with the camera than I am now.

Glad you liked the pictures.

Those hills were literally my backyard growing up. Our fence bordered the walnut orchard that led up into the hills. I could take my bike from our backyard to the <st1:place><st1:PlaceType>Mt.</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName>Diablo</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> ranger station (lower one on N. Gate Rd.) without hitting pavement. Too bad I didn't know what we had back then. My Mom still lives in the same house. If you go to the top of Shell Ridge, you'll see why it got its name. Look into the rock there, you'll see the shells inbedded in the rock. Sea shells that is. You'll find a survey point up there somewhere too. Small cement mound with a metal plaque. Have fun.

firedancing4life

Grumpy_one wrote:

Those hills were literally my backyard growing up. Our fence bordered the walnut orchard that led up into the hills. I could take my bike from our backyard to the <st1:place><st1:placetype>Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename>Diablo</st1:placename></st1:place> ranger station (lower one on N. Gate Rd.) without hitting pavement. Too bad I didn't know what we had back then. My Mom still lives in the same house. If you go to the top of Shell Ridge, you'll see why it got its name. Look into the rock there, you'll see the shells inbedded in the rock. Sea shells that is. You'll find a survey point up there somewhere too. Small cement mound with a metal plaque. Have fun.

I'm a civil engineer...so I gotta find that monument! thanks for tip! <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/wings.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >

Grumpy_one

firedancing4life wrote:

I'm a civil engineer...so I gotta find that monument! thanks for tip!

This might help. Got a GPS?
http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=HT2461
They're called benchmarks. Good luck. Take lots of pic's, that's my old stomping ground. I had a friend that lived off of Rudgear Rd. I would take my dirt bike from my house to his. Now lots of houses have been built in them thar hills. Progress, oh well. Have fun!!

CassisP

what a beautiful place. I would love to go riding over those hills... (dare I say it?) and through those woods..

Dee

Great photos. It's sometimes difficult to get good compositions of that kind of landscape -- but you did extremely well!

I'll have to google Shell Ridge, .

ian408

I go past there all the time and wondered if it was worth a hike.

I think these say yes

sanaka

Wow, nice!

If your camera was pointed west in any of those shots, then those are the 'back' (east) faces of the hills I grew up on, in Oakland. First shot looks very similar to the view out my childhood bedroom window (homesick...). My 'favorite' gramdmother lives on Overlook Ct. in Walnut Creek. Is that anywhere close to Shell Ridge?

Peace,
Sanaka

Grumpy_one

sanaka wrote:

Wow, nice!

My 'favorite' gramdmother lives on Overlook Ct. in Walnut Creek. Is that anywhere close to Shell Ridge?

Peace,
Sanaka

Here ya go

firedancing4life

Dee wrote:

Great photos. It's sometimes difficult to get good compositions of that kind of landscape -- but you did extremely well!

I'll have to google Shell Ridge, .

Thanks Dee....means a lot. Rolling hills and Sycamore trees can get boring out here.....but yeah...I tried my hardest to mix it up a bit.

Looks like I'm bringing up a lot of childhood memories...

Another fun place is Briones....in Layfette...I have some pictures from there a couple years back, but they call out amateur hour.

sanaka

Thanks, GrumpyOne

Man it's amazing what I never explored out in my area growing up!

Peace,
Sanaka

Grumpy_one

firedancing4life wrote:

Thanks Dee....means a lot. Rolling hills and Sycamore trees can get boring out here.....but yeah...I tried my hardest to mix it up a bit.

Looks like I'm bringing up a lot of childhood memories...

Another fun place is Briones....in Layfette...I have some pictures from there a couple years back, but they call out amateur hour.

Yep, you sure are Did a lot of frisbee tossing at Briones. Used to go up into the Berkeley hills a lot too. And for fun, we would sneek into the Claremont Hotel fire escapes and slide down them. That was tough. It was a long winding slide. We had to take our shoes off and climb up in socks. We also used to get cardboard boxes and look for long wet green hill sides to slide down. Ahhh....good times. That was mid late 70's. I'm sure times have changed....loved those hills.