Here at the San Francisco Bay Times and “Betty’s List” we enjoy our base in the Castro and exploring nearby natural treasures such as Land’s End, the city’s parks (there are 220 of them!), the Marin Headlands, and much more. For a short but long on happy memories day trip, we have for years enjoyed exploring nature with Kim Powell, who is the Owner, Operator & Head Naturalist of Santa Cruz-based Blue Water Ventures. This month, for example, we are looking forward to the Women’s Año Nuevo Elephant Seals & Tidepool Hike on April 23—the day after Earth Day!
Kim has been organizing single and multiple day excursions to places with extraordinary beauty since 1985. With a Masters Degree in Environmental Interpretation, she is dedicated to educating people using the natural world as a classroom.
She has led expeditions from the blue glaciers of Alaska to the tropical greenery of the Amazon Basin. She has been a naturalist for over 35 years and her area of interest has been the ecology of coral reefs. Of equal interest to her is sharing the cultural diversity of the countries and places she has visited.
While in the Año Nuevo area, for example, she teaches about the Ohlone, who once had a very large settlement at the site that is rich in natural resources. Those who attend the April 23rd hike will even get to explore a shell midden—still intact!—left behind by the resourceful Ohlone. The site remains undeveloped and in sharp contrast to places such as Shellmound in Emeryville. (The 2005 documentary Shellmound reveals much of that site’s often sad history.) The Ohlone Culture here is said to date back to at least 400 A.D.
Kim is a certified sea kayaking instructor, so some of our adventures with her have involved paddling out to see marine mammals. She did this in Baja and then went snorkeling to see and film much of the underwater life there.
Kim works with all sorts of groups, from school kids upwards, and particularly enjoys leading outdoor nature adventures for women. So if you are reading this before April 23, come join us at Davenport Landing and the Año Nuevo State Reserve.
For more information: https://tinyurl.com/3vcc6haj
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