E.S.C.A.P.E. Club

Our March trips to Tilden and Pt. Reyes

We’ve had a fun spring with the ESCAPE club: steam train, lighthouse, spring wildflower blooms, and some amazing wildlife watching. Read on to hear about our last two regular trips of this school year!

For our first March trip we stayed extra local (didn’t even get on the highway!) and visited a handful of spots in Tilden Regional Park. It was a really beautiful spring day that started with a short hike and detour into the Tilden Little Farm. We got lucky with timing and happened upon a “Creature Feature” right as it was starting at the visitor center and students got to see and pet a tortoise. 

In the afternoon we went over to the botanic garden for a nature journaling session. Students spread throughout the garden, finding a spot sit and to sketch plants or insects. Even with everyone starting with a different art background and comfort around drawing, they were all were really engaged with the activity and produced some really beautiful artwork. After a few minutes, some continued their drawing while others looked for salamanders in the pond or explored the redwood trails. And finally to end the day we rode the Tilden Steam Train! So fun.

Late March took us to Pt. Reyes National Seashore for hiking and wildlife viewing. To start, we walked down the 300 steps to the lighthouse and back up, which feels a bit like training for Yosemite’s Mist Trail. The fog had made it so the visibility wasn’t great, but it does create a certain ambience. The sun started to come out as we ate lunch and then hiked Chimney Rock. Along the trail, there are spots where you can look down and see the elephant seals down below. And there was a special treat at the end of the trail: whale watching! Several gray whales splashed around as they passed through for their spring migration. After the hike, we walked down to the end of the Cypress Tree Tunnel before heading to the visitor center for a picnic and frisbee in the park. Overall, it was a beautiful day with a great group of kids.

It’s been a busy busy few months, but we’re always grateful for the time spent outdoors. To top it all off, we were in Yosemite a couple weeks ago for our big end of year camping trip. That will be its own newsletter, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, you can check out the videos from both of these trips below. As always, thanks for reading!

Check out our trip to Tilden!

And Pt. Reyes!

A tour of SF and a day in the snow

It’s been a busy 2026 so far for the ESCAPE club with a tour of SF in January and a snow day in February! We had some great trips during the winter months with great groups of kids. Read on to hear about San Francisco and Tahoe!

In January we made our way to San Francisco to tour the city. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, starting with a walk across the first part of the Golden Gate Bridge. We then went down to Fort Point situated at the base of the bridge. Last year, bad weather kept us from the rooftop and then closed down the fort entirely shortly after we arrived, so it was great to be able to explore the new exhibits and renovations. After that, we spent some time in the Presidio Field Station. This space is an active field station for scientists and researchers in the area and has huge natural history collections that students are able to interact with hands on.

Finally, it wouldn’t be San Francisco without traffic, but with a lot of detours both planned (Palace of Fine Arts and Lombard Street) and unplanned (streets blocked off) we made it to our final destination: ice skating! We might not be competing in the next winter Olympics but it was a lot of fun to skate around and watch kids improve quite a lot during our time on the rink. 

In February we went up to the Tahoe area for a day in the snow. Continuing the trend of beautiful weather during our trips this year, we had sunny blue skies and fairly warm weather. It was a sort of second try at the trip that went awry last year due to a bus issue, and this time we successfully made it to the Clair Tappaan Lodge. It was a new experience to have home base be at a ski lodge, and it was great to have a warm and cozy space throughout the day! 

We partnered with Headwaters Science Institute for a snow science lesson where students learned how researchers study climate and analyze the snow in the region. After the science lesson, we had a hot spaghetti and meatballs lunch indoors courtesy of one of the chaperones. 

In the afternoon, there was time for some sledding and playing in the snow. It wasn’t the best snow year that we’ve experienced – the sledding was bumpy and the snowballs icy – but students still had fun and did all typical snow activities. Lots of sledding, snowball battles, and snowman-making! Finally, we hit our usual spots of In-N-Out and the state capitol on the way home. Long but fun day!

March is bringing a couple more trips before our end of year trip to Yosemite, so keep an eye out for a recap of our last trips. There’s videos below if you have a few minutes!

San Francisco ’25 – ’26

Snow ’25 – ’26

Environmental education at a coastal ranch for our first trip of the school year!

We’re back! The ESCAPE Club has officially kicked off with a return to Slide Ranch. This farm has so many cool sustainability-focused things to see and do, and it was a fun way to learn about where food comes from with a great group of students and chaperones. We had a really nice time exploring the various spaces and trying new things, especially tasting so much fresh food throughout the day (sour sorrel? Unsurprisingly, very sour).

We started the day learning to milk goats (a brave few even tasting the fresh milk!) before breaking into smaller groups. In the garden, we saw, touched, smelled and tasted the many different vegetables and flowers growing in the hillside beds before cooking a small snack of bread and cheese from scratch. Some gathered herbs from the garden to add to theirs. So cool to share a meal that we created with our own hands! Then in the chicken coop, students got to pet and feed chickens before petting various goats and sheep in the barn.

After a picnic lunch, we made our way to the bone grove, filled with bones of all sizes from small rodents to whale ribs and vertebrae. It’s fun to try to figure out what type of animal the different skeleton pieces came from. Then as the sun was finally emerging we hiked down to the tidepools and spent some time near the water before wrapping up our day and heading home.

It’s great to be back outside with students, and we hope that wherever you are you find some pockets of nature to spend time in. Looking ahead into this year, there’s a lot of fun trips to be had and we’ll keep you updated on all our excursions. As always, thank you so much for your endless support through kind words and well-wishes.

And, of course, this program couldn’t run without the financial support. We are grateful for donations of any amount, and this money goes directly to funding student trips. You can donate in several ways:

• via the EdFund (tax-deductible and employer matchable!). Be sure to choose ESCAPE Club in the dropdown menu.
• via PayPal: link HERE
• write a check to DeJean Middle School
• send a check directly to John

Thank you for following along! We appreciate your support! 

Check out the video if you have a few extra minutes!

Mountains, mist, and many many memories

 

We did it! Another year of ESCAPE. We had a great turnout for every trip this year, visited some new places, and shared a lot of good times. Read on for a recap of our culminating camping trip and information about an upcoming family picnic and alumni reunion! 

We took 42 students to Yosemite National Park for a weekend, hitting many of the park’s highlights and getting back to Mariposa Grove for the first time in several years. There’s a huge amount of planning that goes into this trip starting months beforehand. We need campsites, food for 60+ people, tents and sleeping bags, a whole lot of other camping gear, and over a dozen drivers. It’s all worth it though when we finally get to be there and to see students experience Yosemite. 

On our first day, we got on the road and went straight to Mariposa Grove. We haven’t been to see the giant sequoias since before the pandemic due to renovations, so it was great to be able to get back to the big trees (it’s pretty humbling to stare up at a tree that is nearly 3,000 years old). After a short hike in the sequoia grove, we set up camp in Wawona and had a delicious dinner of chili nachos. 

Saturday is our big hiking day, but first we enjoyed hot coffee/cocoa and eggs, bacon, and pancakes by the morning fire. Even with the time crunch of needing to head out to the valley, there’s something special about camp mornings. After breakfast we piled into cars and drove into Yosemite Valley for the main event of the day: hiking the Mist Trail. When we got to the bridge at the base of Vernal Falls, we saw a bobcat hanging around near the trail! It stayed around long enough for many in the group to get a good look and take some pictures. Then after returning to the parking lot, we got our second wildlife treat of the day: a black bear! Finally, we got back to our campsite for dinner, campfire, s’mores, and glowsticks. 

Our last day was an easy drive back through the valley to see Bridalveil Falls (though it looked like more mist than waterfall) and to watch from the meadow as climbers attempted to scale El Capitan. After a quick pitstop for pizza, we were back in Richmond, tired but happy. It was a wonderful weekend. We’ll be sad to say goodbye to the 8th graders, but looking forward to seeing our returning students along with new members next fall. 

In the meantime, join us for an end of year celebration! We’ll be closing out the year with a family and alumni picnic on June 7 at Point Pinole. All are welcome! We would love to see you there. Please RSVP at this link. 

Check out the video if you have a few extra minutes!