Benicia State Recreation Area

Benicia State Recreation Area is about five miles from our campground, located on the north shore of Southampton Bay, beyond which the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers pass through Carquinez Strait and into San Pablo Bay, before emptying into the San Francisco Bay.  The recreation area includes the Southampton Bay Wetland Natural Preserve and includes hiking trails along the headland, westward toward the Caequinez (I-80) Bridge connecting Vallejo with Richmond and Berkeley to the south.

It's a short hike up a well-maintained gravel trail from the parking lot to the height of land over the water.  Here's a view looking back at the parking and picnic area:

From the first part of the hill, we could see miles to the east and south:

Here's a photo of us with part of the town of Benicia in the background across the water:

Southeast of us and across the water lay distant mountains in the direction of Stockton and Yosemite --

-- while, to the west we could see the Carquinez Bridge and the Bay beyond:

We passed up a chance to hike down to water's edge, but we could see fishermen and families enjoying themselves on the rocky and sandy shore, while sailboats and fishing boats plied the deeper waters:

A variety of grass like plume grass was plentiful around the shoreline, and it grew so high we could take photos upward at its tufts:

Kathy couldn't resist the soft brushy texture of these wildflowers - but beware the spiny parts!

At the far western end of the trail, a large grove of old Eucalyptus trees were growing and threw welcome shade on us.  It being later in the autumn, their fragrant seed pods have long ago dried out, and we got very little of that pungent eucalyptus smell that David remembers from his college days in the Bay area:

We met a number of hikers, trail runners, trail bikers, dog walkers, fishermen, families with strollers or toddlers, and the like, but nearly as many people as we would have expected on a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon.  We mainly had the trail to ourselves, and we enjoyed the sounds of the wind and the birds, some glimpses of heron and muskrat, and views of distant boats.  The walk lasted most of the afternoon, and by the time we returned home, we felt refreshed and exercised at the same time.

We topped the day off with a little pomegranate lemonade (spiked, in Kathy's case, with tequila, and in David's case, with dark rum) and a dinner consisting of chewy pumpkin bread and a wonderful soup of lentils, split peas, carrots, pasta, chicken and sun dried tomatoes.

Tomorrow we meet up with some RV buddies at the Tolay Fall Festival!