Pine and Sage scented places in the Bay Area (Los Angeles: college, beach)

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by jribe

pacifica and half moon bay

It's a different smell than you'd find in the Sierras, but it's a very nice smell.

[Dave Coe]

Originally Posted by HockeyMac18

It's a different smell than you'd find in the Sierras, but it's a very nice smell.

Yes, it's more of an ocean smell.

[Dave Coe]

What about the Mountains East of Napa?

[Dave Coe]

I just visited the Bay Area. There is one location North of Prundale there is a strong Eucalyptus smell. I noticed it to a lesser degree around Los Gatos and Palo Alto. SF was to cool and foggy to notice.

[treedroppings]

SF has the eucalyptus smell around McLaren park. Suncrest av in San Jose has a lesser extent of that smell in the Berryessa hills near the homes on Claitor st, where I lived for a year. Not as much, though.

Maybe Sunol has more fragrant woodlands as well.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Now this is a departure from native sage scrub and chaparral aromas ... speaking of Eucs, there is this one type of Euc that has almost a soapy smell. These are the ones with very smooth shapes and a less raggedy bark, overall the bark is very light in color, the leaves are really skinny and long. Very common in the developed parts of SoCal. A few of them up here. Whenever I smell that, it transports me back in time to my SoCal days.

[Dave Coe]

Originally Posted by treedroppings

SF has the eucalyptus smell around McLaren park. Suncrest av in San Jose has a lesser extent of that smell in the Berryessa hills near the homes on Claitor st, where I lived for a year. Not as much, though.

Maybe Sunol has more fragrant woodlands as well.

SF just doesn't have the dry heat necessary to bring out the aroma. It exist around Palo Alto but is more subtle. How is Tilden Park and surrounding areas.

[Kitster_1960]

I lived in Canyon which is near Oakland and Moraga, gorgeous redwood forests and hills. Very hard to find a place to live there though. Where I live now we have a lot of pine trees but I don't get that wonderful aroma.. miss that! I would also vote for the Sierra Foothills. Would live there if I could!

[BayAreaHillbilly]

A bit of a side topic, since they are only barely aromatic and only when in bloom - Yuccas. However, they are visually striking and quite emblematic of SoCal

"What?" you say, "Yuccas in the Bay Area?"

I also found it a bit surprising. I discovered a lone individual (but given that, there must be others within some distance?) in a chaparral area of the Santa Cruz Mountains, during late childhood. It was on a spur called Rhus Ridge, near the Los Altos Hills - Palo Alto border. That area is Franciscan Formation with very poorly developed soil and in a rain shadow (due to Black Mountain), a little micro climate. At the time I thought that it might be the furthest north Yucca. I think it was a Chaparral Yucca (same as the ones seen in large numbers along the Central and South Coasts). May or may not still be alive - I have not hiked that trail for many years.

In any case ... it was NOT the furthest north Yucca. I made this subsequent discovery in, of all places, the property we bought (aka The Hillbilly Shack and its "Back 1/4"). And we are not talking a mere individual but entire clumps of them, just like SoCal. Again, it's Franciscan Formation with poorly developed to non existent soil. Lots of chert, schist and mudstone outcrops. Also on a Santa Cruz Mountain spur, in Central San Mateo County. So here we have Yuccas at nearly 38N!

[Dave Coe]

Los Angeles Is Smelliest City On The Planet, According To GQ




The Smelliest Cities on the Planet | GQ



1. Los Angeles
L.A. is one of the most bizarre places on Earth, and it has an equally singular smell. The clear, alluring track of its scent is arresting. There's the ocean breeze from Santa Monica that can travel as far East as Silver Lake; a dry desert air that comes West over Downtown and South Central; the astringent balm of eucalyptus, pine, honeysuckle, and jasmine from the hills; and car exhaust from catalytic converters, which is, in its strange industrial way, beautiful. It's like the jolt of a drug: shifting, comforting, cool like a blanket. The lonely smell of the marine layer burns off and you get this flashy perfume of hot asphalt, engines, and sun block that you can find nowhere but in L.A.

4. San Francisco
Limited to its peninsula, San Francisco's scent is as sharply defined as its borders: soft clouds, smooth pine, sharp eucalyptus, and cold ocean. Depending on where you go, you can add to that mix grass and the heather-like smell of scrub (the hills); old wood used in the housing stock (especially on the block where the Painted Ladies stand); and a weird dry dampness that is cool and a little isolating. Sometimes the city's perfume is mid with the heady scent of dry California desert. It may be the most beautiful-smelling skyline in the world.