Where to walk your dog in Bozeman, MT: Peets Hill

If both you and your dog are social creatures, a very good place to take your dog for a walk in Bozeman, MT., is Peets Hill.

On the edge of the sprawling, pleasant Lindley Park and easily reached by either a short climb or a flat walk from a parking lot, Peets Hill offers acres of open space with sweeping views of the mountains and the sunset for humans, along with plenty of exploring and sniffing opportunities for dogs.

So, of course, it’s also very popular, and you will most assuredly encounter lots of other people and lots of other dogs, nearly all of whom are off-leash, though many signs advise you otherwise.

If your dog loves to have “speed dates” with other active dogs and you don’t mind chatting with lots of other dog owners, this is a great place for you.

But even if you or your dog are not-so-social, there is enough space for everyone for enjoy the park without interacting, and it’s still a great place for an on-leash walk.

The many charms of Peets Hill are best enjoyed by social butterflies.

Where to stop with a dog in Nevada: Lovelock

If you’re driving Interstate 80 through Nevada, a good place to stop and pee the dog is a small town called Lovelock, about an hour and a half east of Reno.

It’s very small, but it has a McDonald’s right off the highway. I find that chain nearly essential on road trips for its bathrooms, all-day breakfast and emergency coffee.

Even more worth a stop, however, is the city’s downtown that features interesting architecture and a park where couples come to 

“lock their love.”

A few blocks away from the McDonald’s is the handsome Pershing County Courthouse, and behind that is a nice park with plenty of grass for the dog.

The park also has several posts with chains full of locks. Given that the city’s name is Lovelock, it seems people come from all over to write their names on locks and leave them in the city park.

Couples come to Lovelock, Nev., to "lock" their love in its park.

Need to wear out your dog? Take 'em up Montara Mountain.

View of Highway 1 and the Pacific Ocean from Montara Mountain.

Montara Mountain has it all: sweeping views of water and mountains, plenty of wildflowers and a side trail that leads down to a clothing-optional beach.

What I loved the most, though, is that gave me a great workout and wore out my nearly exhaustible dog.
Definitely don't try this one unless both you and your dog are in great shape. It's about 3.5 miles to the 1,898-foot summit, so the trail is at least 7 miles round-trip.
The Mountain is located between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay on Highway 1, with a super small parking lot that is easy to miss.

If you do miss it, or it’s full, you can park at a larger lot to the south, although it’s across the highway from the trailhead.

The main trail is actually a former fire road, so it’s wide and easy to walk, but it’s also quite dry and hot with little shade. Bring lots of water for you and your dog.

I also recommend taking a side jaunt along Old San Pedro Mountain Road. It has great views and great flowers, but is also a very narrow strip of crumbling asphalt carved into a cliff that can easily give you vertigo, and where you will likely encounter many bicyclists.

Pluses:

• It’s often foggy, so it can be a great escape if you live somewhere hot. (However, if the fog rolls in while you’re still heading to the top, it will seriously diminish the panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay and all the other bodies of water that you could see from the top of the mountain.)

• I saw flowers I hadn’t seen before, such as the striking cobweb thistle.

• Perhaps the best plus is the dog-friendly state beach right across the highway where you both can cool down.

Relaxing on Montara State Beach.

A fine, but not fancy, place to stay nearby is the Zaballa House Bed & Breakfast.

Find more about this hike and other great ones in “The Best Dog Hikes of Northern California,” a very helpful book.

Where to stay with a dog in Half Moon Bay: Zaballa House Bed & Breakfast

Warning: if you want a fancy room to stay in with your dog, this isn't the place. The super fancy Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay allows pets, but you'll pay a couple hundred dollars in added fees alone.
Not so at the Zaballa House Bed & Breakfast, which only charged an extra $10 for my dog, no weight limit. So for the same amount of the "non-refundable pet deposit" I've paid at other places, I got a whole room that was bigger than all of the apartments I had in college.
It came with a king-sized bed, couch, fireplace and large bathroom that were a tad drab, but I'd much rather stay in a plain room that's already stained than worry the whole time about the "fancy" furnishings I had to pay extra to protect, all with no hope of getting any of that money back no matter how clean we were.

Pluses:
• a coffeemaker in the room that came with real mugs and real glasses, not paper or plastic cups.
• an alarm clock that included an auxiliary cord for playing a digital device and a USB plug for charging. Lifesaver!
• the fresh blueberries, strawberries, and cherries offered the next morning. (The rest of the breakfast included canned fruit, yogurt, bagels, English muffins and pastries. Three kinds of quiche were also offered, but I opted to get an Egg McMuffin instead. I also opted not to drink the coffee there and instead headed a few blocks down Main Street to Café Society, whose strong coffee I can definitely recommend).

Minuses:
Minor: If you're expecting fancy shampoos and lotions, you'll be disappointed. I was given just a disk of glycerin soap and "conditioning" shampoo, no conditioner or body lotion.
Moderate: the bed was not good, but if you don't have a bad back it likely would be OK.
Major: the room was upstairs in a mostly empty building completely separate from the main B&B, overlooking a parking lot, with its door and windows accessible by anyone outside. If I did not have a large dog with me who is always on alert, I would not have felt safe staying there.

Where to stay with a dog in Ashland, Ore.

Whether traveling through or staying on for some Shakespeare, if you need a hotel in Ashland, Ore., that will welcome your dog I recommend trying the Best Western Windsor Inn.

Best Western is quickly becoming my go-to choice for traveling with my dog. Firstly, they only charge you about $25, and secondly they provide you with actual “pet-friendly” touches like sheets for the furniture and treats for your companion.

Much friendlier than other places that charged me $100 while not giving me one measly biscuit or even a sheet to help me keep the room clean and avoid even more fees.

The Windsor Inn has grassy areas for the dog to enjoy doing its business on, and plenty of rose bushes for the human to enjoy while waiting.

Another nice touch for the humans: the complimentary breakfast bar had surprisingly healthy options, like oatmeal you could top with nuts and dried fruit.

This location is cheaper than the Best Western in downtown Ashland, and closer to I-5 if you are traveling through.

Changes afoot for “Doggie Disneyland” near San Francisco

I am forever grateful to the fellow dog owner who told me about Fort Funston, which she described as a “Doggie Disneyland,” located just south of San Francisco along the Great Highway.

And it can be the perfect dog park, as its dunes, trails and long stretch of beach are usually teeming with dogs happily running loose, some let free just a few feet from the parking lots.

But less of the park will be so free soon as new rules are being proposed by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area that will require dogs to be on-leash in some areas, and require people to have a permit if they want to bring more than three dogs at a time.

I don’t have a problem with the new rules, as dogs are still allowed off-leash on the route I’ve always taken to the beach, as well as the beach itself. And I think limiting the amount of dogs that one person can bring is reasonable.

However, the changes are more drastic for the other areas in the GGNRA that will allow dog walking, as only seven of those would allow off-leash dogs.

After leaving Fort Funston’s sand, dogs will need to be leashed for most of the walk north on Ocean Beach to the Cliff House, as the off-leash area only begins north of Lincoln Way.

But perhaps the most controversial part of the proposed new rules is that no off-leash areas will remain in the GGNRA areas in San Mateo County.

The public can comment on the proposed rules until May 25 by mail to Superintendent, GGNRA, Dog Management Proposed Rules, Building 201, Fort Mason, San Francisco CA 94123.

It can be read at:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-03731.pdf

Seaside Beach Snafu

Just a head's up to dog owners like me who like to make a day trip to Seaside Beach along the Mendocino Coast: current road work is making it very difficult to access.
For those not already familiar with Seaside Beach, it is a great spot to let your dog roam off-leash. (And technically the only beach in Mendocino County where you're allowed to do so).
Located a few miles north of Fort Bragg and just off Highway 1, its biggest drawback is it has a very small parking lot that is usually full on the weekends, leaving many people to park along the highway.
Now the parking situation is even worse as Caltrans is doing work just across the highway from the beach and has set up one-way traffic control signals, one of which is directly in front of the entrance/exit to the beach's parking lot, blocking it with long lines of vehicles.
According to Caltrans, the work is continuing 24/7, and the signals were definitely on when we visited Sunday.