Kate Bradshaw

_{My dog and I took a selfie while on a trail run at Foothills Park in Palo Alto on May 6, 2021. Photo by Kate Bradshaw.}

My dog and I had all of Foothills Park to ourselves for a night. It was mildly creepy, and totally awesome.

By Kate Bradshaw

June 21, 2021

It wasn’t a great day to go camping.

It was the Thursday night of a long week, and my boyfriend had a last-minute work meeting come up. Then a friend I’d invited to join me at the last minute notified me she had a class to attend, while another friend declined for work reasons.

So the roster for the May 6 expedition to overnight at Palo Alto’s Foothills Park would be just me — and my trusty canine companion, Willa.

I arrived at the park around 5 p.m., hours after the check-in time of 2 p.m.

Unsure of just where the campsites were, I parked at the bottom of the hill at the Orchard Glen parking area and started hiking in toward the Towle Campground. The campsites were a solid half-mile away from the parking area, and upon arriving, I realized that there was abundant parking there, and that I could have just driven in along the gravel path the whole way.

While setting up my tent, I was met by a park ranger who walked me through the rules of the campground and had me sign out a key offering emergency-only exit access from the park.

After getting set up, Willa and I went out to explore the trails, enjoying the gorgeous dusk, where we saw deer, turkeys and other human park visitors.

Back at camp, it became evident that the other party the ranger had told me would be arriving was a no-show. It was just me, alone in this giant park that until pretty recently was off-limits to nonresidents — not the most welcoming of vibes.

Full story here.