Waterfalls
The Way of WaterfallsÂ
Excerpts from a chapter of Hidden Walks by author and musician Stephen Altschuler
...Bus Line: 7 ...Parks: Codornices, Berkeley Rose Garden, ....
...No less than 14 creeks flow through Berkeley, most starting in the hills, and trickling down through deep gorges, hidden gullies and culverts....
Take the paved path at the north end of Codornices Park, at Euclid Avenue and Eunice Street, across from the Berkeley Rose Garden, and descend west, toward a grove of redwoods and bay laurel. Cross a wooden bridge over the North Fork of Codornices Creek and a couple of small waterfalls. ...Ascend a spiraling concrete stairway which is the start of the Tamalpais Path. Like its namesake mountain to the west, this path of 188 steps climbs steeply. But before you consider turning back, take just 64 steps, the easy first third, stop and look to your left.
You'll see a small dirt path, unmarked, that winds through a grove of redwoods and continues along the ridge above lush Benner's Canyon. Forget-me-nots, irises, ivy, and clover blanket the canyon at different times of year. As you continue to walk, the sound of falling water intensifies. Ahead are the falls -- yes, the falls -- dropping several levels....
Above and to the right take the wooden walkway and keep bearing to the right. Return to the Tamalpais Path via the same canyon ridge path. Continue ascending the remaining 124 steps. To help motivate you, I should add here that another waterfall lies ahead....
To the left on Tamalpais Road, admire #149, built in 1914, with its stone walls and wooden gates, its odd long shingles and broad beams over and under small bay windows. There are also turrets, flagpoles, split-rail fences and -- the maestro of the orchestra -- a sprawling interior live oak.
Swinging around the bend on Tamalpais Road past houses ranging style from Gothic to Tudor to First Bay Tradition to Empire to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to modern. It's all there. There are also huge Australian tree ferns and more live oaks before you reach Shasta Road. About a hundred years ago there was a dairy farm with grazing cows on corner. Turn left and continue to the first intersection.
This is the start [of] Keith Avenue ...(named for the turn-of-the-century Berkeley landscape painter William Keith), which, after a few hundred feet, leads to that other promised waterfall. Water from the Keith Falls, which is part of Codornices Creek drops four levels before disappearing through the culvert, under the street and on to the previously described waterfall below.
Continue on Keith to the Redwood Terrace Path on your left, just past #1140. The path is unmarked so watch for it closely. Then descend 131 steps, feasting on bay views, mini-meadows, colorful gardens, and, finally, Euclid Avenue.
...take the steps at the southwest comer of Euclid and Eunice down to the funhouse foot tunnel (sharp left at bottom of steps) that passes under Euclid, shooting you through to Codomices Park. This 10.6-acre park used to be a steep rocky gulch, overgrown with brush inhabited by many quail (codornices is Spanish for quail). But during the early years of the Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped develop it and the terraced paths of the Berkeley Rose Garden into showcases. Today you'll find swings, slides, picnic tables, lawns, an open and natural section of Codornices Creek, wildflowers, trails, many species of roses, summer wedding ceremonies, views of San Francisco Bay, tennis courts, drinking fountains, and ... rest rooms. You couldn't ask for more.
Map for The Way of Waterfalls
