Albany Bulb: Construction Rubble to Colorful Creations

Heard of Albany — the one in California? Or Albany Bulb in it? If not, let me tell you about it, and show you what makes it unique. (If we’re connected on Instagram, you might have seen it on my feed a few days back.) Albany Bulb is an interesting little place on the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Albany & Albany Bulb

Albany is a city north of Berkeley, CA and Albany Bulb is a piece of land jutting out of the city and into the San Francisco Bay. It gets its name from the shape of the land but what makes it interesting is its story and what it has come to be.

Albany Bulb came into being when some land was reclaimed from the bay. The ‘land fill’ then went on to become a ‘landfill.’ What was a dumping ground from the early 60s to the late 80s was then cleaned up as part of a program to ‘save the bay.’ In the 90’s the trash yard began to take on the form of an informal park.

Today, Albany Bulb is a bayside park with trails, street art and installation art made with all kinds of materials. There still is some construction waste on site but there’s color on it.

Walk the trails on the peninsula and you’ll see all kinds of art — from what looks like graffiti to mosaic art, from installations put together with scrap metal, chinaware and wood to sketches of people who’ve lost their lives merely because of the color of their skin.

When you’re out here on these trails, you’ll also get to catch some famous Bay Area views. Look out for the Bay Bridge, San Francisco Skyline, Golden Gate Bridge and bits of the cities of Berkeley and Richmond. 

(By the way have you seen California’s Glass Beach? That’s another thing of beauty that came out of another dumping yard. Visit — Glass Beach. )

More art from the bulb

52 Hike Challenge
Hike 10 of 52

Trail: Albany Bulb (Loop)
Terrain: Partly paved, partly uneven,
Difficulty Level: Easy
Distance: around 2 miles

52 Hike Challenge is something I took up so as to get myself outdoors every week. The idea is to try to do a hike a week — for outdoor time, and for physical & mental health. If you’d like to do so (you can hike anywhere, anytime. You can do two or more hikes a week and if you miss a week, you can make up for it over the next few weeks. If you’d like to jump in, feel free to use this link to sign up.
Good luck!

(And if you’ve got any questions, feel free to put it in the comments or DM me. The contact details are on the bio page)

More Inspiration — 
52 Hikes: The hikes so far
Bay Area Hikes

Linking to
Monday Mural
Pictorial Tuesday
My Corner of the World

For tidbits from the road, Like/Follow Tipsy From The TRIP on  Facebook or Instagram
Come, Trip with us.😉