Leave the Bay Tree Bridge, cross the roadway, and follow the flagstone path past the football statue. Cross the bridge designed by John Galen Howard (the great campus architect) and bear right. You are now entering the heart of the Grinnell Natural Area. In addition to numerous redwoods, you will find many Monterey pines and coast live oaks here. This area resembles a native oak savanna and provides a glimpse of what the campus looked like a century ago.

Hungry fox squirrels, often fed by students, may scamper up to you. This import from eastern North America filled an empty niche in the urban San Francisco Bay area because the native gray squirrel never adapted to urban conditions.

Continue down what was called “lover’s lane” and cross the wooden footbridge over the main branch of Strawberry Creek. You are now about 250 feet upstream of the entrance to the city culvert, the point where the stream leaves the campus. Under the redwood trees to the left is a plaque marking the site where the 1772 Spanish expedition stopped and described the beauty of the dry grassy headlands later named the Golden Gate. The tall buildings of downtown Berkeley now obscure the view.