Hiking on Mount Burdell to Hidden Lake

To reach the trailhead for our hike on Mount Burdell, we exited from Highway 101 and drove west on San Marin Drive until we reached its intersection with San Andreas Drive. Access to the open-space lands is near the end of San Andreas. We made an easterly traverse across the mountain, passing below the water tank (visible in the Google Map below), then headed uphill towards the summit, crossing a large drainage, then then veering back to the west along the Middle Burdell Fire Road until we reached "Hidden Lake" (which was just a meadow today due to the lack of rain since March.

The grass on the mountain was still quite green, but the skies overhead were mostly gray and periodically gusting winds made the day seem more winter than spring-like especially after the 80-plus degree temperates we'd enjoyed only a week or so ago.

As usual, lunch didn't come until long after the dinner bells in our stomachs began ringing around noon and we reached the lake. Silvia serenaded us with a tune she'd written to commemorate Earth Day. A light misty rain began, but quickly ended, just as we finished lunch and started back down the mountain to our cars.

We came across a "wingless wasp" (spider-looking critter) on the trail and found a tree frog at the lake. One of the "neat" little plants we saw (again) were "Tidy Tips". (I'll post Wendy's "What We Saw" list later in the week).

Here's the map of the general area where we hiked. (Click on "View Larger Map" just below this map to access and zoom in and out, left and right, on the on-line Google sap. Better yet, download a free copy of the "Google Earth" software which will let you "tilt" and rotate Mount Burdell and view it from all angles).


View Larger Map