River Parkway Trust Docent, and Founding Mother, Clary Creager has favorite places to visit when she leads nature hikes on the San Joaquin River Parkway. When hiking at Ball Ranch, Clary always stops to visit the “Mother Tree.”

This huge, elegant Valley Oak is a habitat of its own, offering all manner of birds, reptiles, and mammals perches, food, and shelter.

On a recent walk the hiking group decided to measure the circumference of the Mother Tree. It took seven adults clasping hands to encircle the great oak. According to their calculations, the group figured the trunk is forty feet in circumference. Clary shared that the group felt like kids again, awed and at play in nature’s abundance. 

Thank you for helping protect the incredible resources found throughout the Parkway.