Tour The Mount Hamilton Telescope And Enjoy The View
Continuing to enjoy the view, driving up to Mt. Hamilton to see the entire Bay Area from the South Bay is breathtaking!
This is part of a series of family-oriented day trip outings around the San Francisco Bay Area I look forward to enjoying once social distancing isn’t the norm any longer.
Original Lick Telescope by The Tahoe Guy
Social Isolation — Day 8
Today hit me a little harder. Saturdays are prime time for me to get out for adventure with my kids. This morning felt empty of meaning.
I’ve been enjoying these daily exercises in imagination, planning trips for the future, visiting and revisiting spots around the bay. However, now that it’s a prime time to get out and adventure, I feel… a bit sad.
Taking a long drive like the trip I describe below feels like a great escape. I look forward to a time in the near future where I can toss the kids in the car, pack some sandwiches, and put on some road tunes and start driving.
Destination Mt. Hamilton
Tour the Lick Observatory
Enjoy the view from Mt. Hamilton
I’ve only been down here once, about five years ago. Admittedly, it’s a long drive, and it taunts you along the way. This adventure is a little shorter on details as there isn’t too much to do up here, but it’s worth it to go at least once. Be sure to fill up your tank before the drive up here.
As you leave San Jose and head east, climbing up into the foothills near Alum Rock, Mt. Hamilton gives the impression that it’s not too far off. It’s a big mountain. Then you drive down into a valley for a while before heading up again.
The roads up to the observatory are narrow and have a lot of tight turns, it’s a ‘drivers’ road. As you drive up to the observatory, imagine the teams of horse and mule-drawn wagons that had to haul all the building supplies up here in the 1870s and 1880s, including the (largest at the time) 36-inch refracting telescope which began operation in January 1888.
Tour the Lick Observatory
Heading in to take the tour of the Lick Observatory by Cody Tolmasoff
Be sure to take one of the tours that are offered hourly in the afternoon when the site is open. They will take you to the telescope and talk about its construction and history, and why the telescope was so remarkable at the time.
James Lick arrived in San Francisco in January 1848 at virtually the same time as gold was discovered in California. He arrived with tools and a workbench, 600 pounds of chocolate, and $30,000 (almost $100,000 in today’s money). He sold the chocolate quickly and sent word back to his former neighbor in Peru the confectioner Domingo Ghirardelli, to move to San Francisco, where he founded the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.
Through his efforts of buying land and farmland, he founded one of the largest flour mills and orchards in the San Francisco area to feed the growing population. By the time of his death in 1876, he was one of the wealthiest individuals in California.
Suffering a stroke in 1874, he spent the final three years of his life deciding how to spend his fortune to benefit the public good. He empowered 7 trustees to apply his funds to specific uses. The largest one being constructing an observatory with the largest telescope ever built. His estate donated the building for the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park (originally slated to be assembled on his estate in the south bay) and the Francis Scott Key monument near the Academy of Science and de Young museum. Lick died in 1876 and is buried near the telescope on Mt. Hamilton.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Enjoy the view from Mt. Hamilton
This is almost one of the highest points in the South Bay (Copernicus Peak a short way from here is the highest point in Santa Clara, technically off-limits). On a clear day, you can see all the way to San Francisco and Mt. Diablo.
Don’t forget to stroll around the telescope and associated buildings. Be quiet as astronomers may be sleeping nearby.
What can you spot?
Cody Tolmasoff is an author and publisher for Adventuring.in. He is a recovering programmer and a San Francisco native, raising two daughters, and regularly finding new adventures around the SF Bay Area. This article is an excerpt from an upcoming book, 52 San Francisco Bay Area Weekend Adventures, Day Trips With Your Kids!
Find him on Twitter @codyo, and read his most recent title Adventures in Getting Out on Amazon, filled with advice on successfully getting your family out for day trip adventures.
Originally published on Medium on 21 March 2020