Before launching into the main part of this week’s post, reader Christian added a comment to last week’s, noting that Redwood City is getting a new independent bookstore — Fireside Books & More — at 2421 Broadway, which is the building nearest the northbound Caltrain platform (and at the Caltrain end of that building). Here:

I checked in with Taylor, one of the proprietors of this new venture, and they confirmed that theirs will be a store selling new books, plus “gifts and cards, with a focus on local- and California-made items” (that’s the “& More” part of its name). They will not be selling used books, noting that the Historical Society (through Encore Books on the Square) and Savers (and, I should add, the public library) all sell used books in Redwood City. The hope is to open on February 1, so keep an eye out for Fireside Books and be sure to pay it a visit to, if nothing else, say “hi” and welcome them to downtown Redwood City (but do buy a book or three!). Personally, I’m aiming to be there on opening day. And as a big collector of books both new and used, I’m looking forward to many happy purchases either through their physical store or through their online sales outlet, which is up and running right now at https://bookshop.org/shop/FiresideRWC. Oh, and I should note that you can follow Fireside Books on Instagram: @fireside.rwc.

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Having closely followed the progress of the fires in the LA area (I grew up there, and much of my childhood — the two homes I lived in, the three schools I attended, etc. — was in real danger of being wiped from the map), I decided this week that I was long overdue to take a walk up into the hills above Redwood City. In many ways those hills remind me of the canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains that I considered home right up to when I finally moved out of my parent’s house, at age 21. Although the two houses I lived in (we started in one, but as our family grew my parents moved us to a larger house elsewhere in the same canyon) were along the canyon’s bottom, we knew plenty of people who’s homes were located along streets that wound their way up the western wall of the canyon. The streets I walked earlier this week, up through Emerald Lake Hills (aka Emerald Hills), felt very much like the streets that ran up to the upper rim of the canyon in which I lived (I walked along those streets on occasion as a teenager). For a more outdoor adventure — much like walking through some parts of Edgewood Park, something I also did on my walk this week — back then I needed only to walk out our back door and cross our relatively shallow back yard to reach the base of the eastern canyon wall, which in the vicinity of our house was entirely undeveloped. There was a faint trail that led right from our back yard up to the canyon’s eastern rim (it was a pretty good hike that involved an elevation change of around 515 feet); from the top I had a great view of Century City and the surrounding part of the city.

In Redwood City, there are a great many ways to get from “the flats” just east of Alameda de las Pulgas to the upper reaches of Emerald Hills. I’ve tried them all, and I generally prefer following Oak Knoll Drive up past the small commercial area where Canyon Inn and Sancho’s Taqueria (along with a handful of other great businesses) are located. From there I sometimes take Hillside Road (just past the shopping center, and across Oak Knoll) up to Summit Drive, but usually I just continue following Oak Knoll Drive to and along Lower Emerald Lake (Oak Knoll turns left and runs across the earthen dam that forms the lake). Having crossed the dam, I stick with Oak Knoll and follow it as it winds its way up into the hills.

Along the way, I keep a sharp lookout for interesting houses and lovely vistas, both of which can be found up in Emerald Hills. There are a couple of really interesting looking houses clustered somewhat close together midway through the climb, houses that employ a style of a type I wouldn’t be surprised to see in the hills around where I grew up. For instance, this place:

Except for the lovely wooden sides, it makes me think of something from Star Wars. Just one or two doors beyond is a house that has echoes of a house from Hobbiton (from The Lord of the Rings):

There are, of course, many conventionally styled houses up in Emerald Hills. For instance, this one:

But something to note about all of these houses: as in the canyon in which I grew up, note the abundance of trees and bushes that closely surround these houses. They are beautiful, of course, and add a great deal of charm to living in a somewhat wilder environment, but these are exactly the kind of conditions that caused the loss so many houses in the Palisades Fire, in particular. Although our area’s climactic conditions tend to be a bit wetter than in Southern California, it wasn’t long ago (in June of 2022, in fact) that a fire burning in Edgewood Park caused the evacuation of a number of Emerald Hills homes. Fortunately, that fire was brought under control before it grew too large (it peaked at about 20 acres), and no homes were lost, I believe. But the Edgewood Fire shows that a disaster such as what befell many residents of the Pacific Palisades is a possibility that every Redwood City resident should keep in mind.

On my way to the upper entrance to Edgewood Park (at the intersection of Hillcrest Way and Sunset Way, for the curious), I made sure to pass through the intersection of Oak Knoll Drive and Lakeview Way. There, reader Kirk G had told me, I would find one of the Flock License Plate Reader cameras that the Sheriff’s department has apparently scattered through parts of Emerald Hills. And indeed, it was there:

I’m certainly curious to know how effective these are in helping solve area crimes. They certainly aren’t much of a deterrent, since, as Kirk noted, they are easy to miss and there is no signage letting folks know that their license plates are being recorded. Perhaps the Sheriff’s department intentionally doesn’t want to draw any attention to these…

I also went by Handley Rock park, which you’ll find along Handley Trail:

This is a privately owned park that in the past wasn’t fenced in. I’m guessing the park turned out to be something of an “attractive nuisance” and thus needed to be enclosed so as to keep non-residents out. There is a gate with a coded lock that presumably some or all area residents have the code for, but access to the rock itself and the small lawn area in front of it are now off limits to casual passers-by like me.

If you’ve never seen it, Handley Rock is pretty impressive. The above picture doesn’t do it much justice: from the street side you only see the top of the rock, and the trees block your view of much of it. From across the canyon (from within Edgewood Park), though, you can get a better idea of what makes this thing worth naming:

Note the size of the rock in relation to the houses on either side of it.

Many houses up in Emerald Hills have great views of the city and the bay below, but without getting invited into someone’s backyard it is surprisingly hard to get a good look at those vistas. There are one or two spots between houses just across the street from Handley Rock Park from which I’ve gotten some reasonably good glimpses of Redwood City, in particular. Like this one:

As you can see, though, the trees growing in the lower hills block the view of much of the city. Fortunately, there are some great views to be had from within Edgewood Park, views that look south towards Stanford and Moffett Field, and north towards Foster City and the San Mateo Bridge (in addition to straight ahead towards Redwood City). So if great vistas are what you are in the market for, Edgewood Park is one place you can find them (as is Eaton Park in San Carlos). For instance, compare the above photo with the following one, taken from Edgewood Park’s Serpentine Trail:

Fewer obstructions and a somewhat higher vantage point (it appears) makes it much easier to see most of downtown Redwood City all the way out to the port. From that same vantage point, here is a view of Redwood Shores and parts of Bair Island:

The walk down through Edgewood Park is a nice reward after the long uphill slog that took me to the park’s upper entrance (the Sunset Trailhead). At that trailhead, incidentally, I was interested to see that sometime within the last couple of years the park has installed a mechanism that counts people as they enter (and exit?) the park that way:

In my past writings about walks through Edgewood Park I’ve pointed out that the trail signage is pretty good, but on this outing it appeared that the signage is, if anything, even better these days. It is really hard to get lost when you have signage at each major trail juncture that is this comprehensive:

On this particular trip I stuck to the east side of the park, making my way down to the main entrance at Edgewood Road via the Serpentine and Sylvan trails. As I approached that entrance I was pleased to see that the Friends of Edgewood in conjunction with San Mateo County Parks have set up what they’ve dubbed “Edgewood Farms”: raised beds in which they are growing local native plants.

The plants they grow, and their seeds, can later be used to increase the native wildflowers and grasses within the park and thereby push out invasive (presumably non-native) plants.

From the park, my path home meant following Edgewood Road eastward for a short distance, and then taking Cordilleras Road (which, like Edgewood, has no sidewalks for much of its length, but goes the same way and experiences much less vehicular traffic). A great deal of this particular walk, in fact, meant walking either along the side of the road itself, or along the dirt shoulder: the one drawback to walking in Emerald Hills is its marked lack of sidewalks. That, coupled with the numerous blind corners one encounters, requires the pedestrian to keep a sharp eye (and ear) out for traffic. I often find myself crossing from one side of the street to the other just to ensure as much visibility as possible when approaching a blind curve. But one big plus to walking in Emerald Hills and through Edgewood Park is the exercise one gets: climbing those hills in particular is a great way to raise your heart rate and get a nice cardio workout.

I’ve walked through Emerald Hills numerous times, to the point where I mostly know my way around without consulting a map. I haven’t done so in a while, though, which is something I need to change. The exercise I get, and the things I see while I’m up there, are well worth a regular excursion into the hills. Heck, down on “the flats” where I live, I rarely see things like this:

I’m thinking that I need more of this in my life, particularly this year…

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If you, like me, are concerned about possible wildfires and want to know more about what you should do to prepare, the San Mateo County Department of Emergency Management, along with Thrive Alliance, are hosing a free Wildfire Safety Webinar. In it you’ll learn about

• Easy preparedness
• Go bags
• Defensible space
• Free and low cost resources

This is a free Zoom presentation containing concrete information that residents can use to increase their safety in the event of a fire. The seminar will be held at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, January 21. For a bit more information, and a link to the webinar, click here.