I feel like Alum Rock Park in San Jose – California’s first municipal park – is a huge secret, because no one ever talks about it, but it’s AWESOME! I visited for the first time the first weekend of the year and what I absolutely loved about this park was it was like the perfect marriage of a Virginia park (which if you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know I miss, having moved to California a few months ago) and a California park. The park used to be the site of hot springs and was a very big tourist attraction around the beginning of the 20th century, with train lines carrying visitors in from all over. The hot spring ruins are really lovely. What’s more, the canyon floor they are in is a lush forest that reminded me a lot of the Virginia forests I miss. Many Virginia parks contain ruins as well (often from the Civil War era), so I felt quite at home. I didn’t really see any wildlife but it was so beautiful in this park I’ll be returning regularly anyway, especially when I feel homesick for Virginia parks.
I’ll show you the “California side” of this park in an upcoming post.
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