To me, Thacher Park is one of the most beautiful, magical places on earth. It became my playground when I started going up to the pool with family at a young enough age where I didn’t even notice the arctic temperature of the water. Then started hitchhiking up there with buddies to test our bravery on the old trail (inches wide), play under the waterfall, and discover all the fossils in the limestone. And as an adult, I continued visiting and went on the other side of the street to cross-country ski, witnessing all sorts of wildlife. Awesome experiences!
Here’s a link to a 2015 WMHT special on Thacher Park. I’m sure it will bring back some great childhood memories. Enjoy
Thank you for posting this! Your description of the “inches wide” old trail sure brought back memories. Sometimes I can’t believe what was commonplace behavior back then – which our parent allowed, but which would be totally out of bounds today. I must’ve done that trail 100 times, squeezing into the little cave, utterly convinced that I could just make myself small enough, I could travel for miles underground. My parents were close friends with another couple who had three kids roughly the ages of my sister and brother and I, and we would routinely go together to Thacher Park for picnics, but not the usual barbecue kind with burgers and dogs. We always went for breakfast: scrambled eggs and bacon and sausage cooked over an open fire, partially-burned toast with grill marks on it, a big old banged-up coffee pot, and pastries if someone remembered to get them. To this day, a whiff of wood smoke still reminds me of those times.