Fall's Journey, Stop 1 -- Hakone Garden Foliage, Montalvo Arts Center Sunset

🍁 Fall’s Journey, Stop 1: Maples at Hakone, Sunset at Montalvo

The fall colors is here.

This is the first stop of Fall’s Journey, our series of foliage socials, most Sundays at sunset from mid-November into December. For new people in town, follow us to find footsteps of Fall around bay area.

Hakone Garden is a recommended place to see foliage in bay area. Every fall the Japanese maples at Hakone Gardens turn red and gold. Many of them were brought over from Japan for this 100-year-old garden in the Saratoga hills. We’ll walk among them along the koi pond and up Moon Viewing Hill.
https://www.hakone.com/

Then we drive to Montalvo Arts Center for sunset. Montalvo is a popular wedding place, famous for art & architecture, sitting next door to Hakone Garden. Its Mediterranean-style villa dates to 1912 and was the country estate of James Duval Phelan, a former San Francisco mayor and U.S. Senator, who left it to the public as a center for the arts. Artists have lived and worked on the estate since 1939. Today its grounds mix formal gardens with outdoor sculpture and redwood trails, and the Great Lawn in front of the villa is where we’ll end the day with the sunset.
https://montalvoarts.org/

📅 Sunday, Nov 15 · 1:30–5:15pm
Schedule

• 1:15 Arrive at Hakone Estate & Gardens, 21000 Big Basin Way, Saratoga
• 1:30 Welcome and quick self-intros at the main gate
• 1:45–3:15 Fall color walk: maples around the koi pond and waterfall, Moon Viewing Hill, the bamboo garden, plus the “Finding Beauty in Nature” art exhibit in the Lower House
• 3:15 Regroup and carpool to Montalvo Arts Center (15400 Montalvo Rd, a short drive)
• 3:45 Autumn stroll through the villa gardens and a bit of trail
• 4:30 Golden hour on the Great Lawn, our closing circle, and a group photo at sunset (4:59)
• 5:30 Optional: dinner in Saratoga Village, pay your own

💵 Cost

• Hakone admission: $15 adults, $12 seniors 65+. Please buy your own ticket online in advance at hakone.com.
• Montalvo is free.

🌇 Sunset only? Join us at Montalvo at 3:45. Meet us at the villa.
🚗 Parking: Hakone’s lot is small and fills up on weekends, so carpool if you can, or plan on street parking along Big Basin Way. We’ll arrange carpools to Montalvo on site.
👟 Bring: Comfortable shoes (Hakone’s paths are gravel and stone steps), a camera for the maples, and a layer for when the sun goes down. No food in Hakone’s garden, and no pets except service dogs.

🍂 Where Fall’s Journey goes next

1. Hakone + Montalvo (Nov 15) ← you are here
2. Niles Community Park, Nov 22
3. SF Botanical Garden, Thanksgiving Day Nov 26
4. Stanford finale Dec 6th

Honorable mention: a self-organized evening at Filoli Holiday Lights Nov 28th, 4:00 or 4:30pm entry.

🔥 Want to help run a stop? Fall’s Journey is run by volunteers. If you’d like to help greet people, guide the route or take photos at a future stop, tell us at the closing circle or message the hosts.

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