MY FAMILY HAS a fine tradition: on the first day of the year we take a walk and renew ourselves with fresh air, green grass, and rolling California hills. I grew up on the northwest side of Martinez, John Muir's hometown, and I always associate Jan. 1 with hiking through Rankin Park and the beautiful Franklin Hills, one of the great open-space treasures of the Bay Area. When I went off to college, I headed south to UC Santa Cruz and walked under the redwood trees, listening to the sound of water dripping from branches and watching to be sure I didn't step on a big, golden banana slug. Before moving to San Francisco, I lived in the South Bay and strolled along shoreline trails among birds with the wind blowing in the tall grasses.

Without leaving San Francisco, you can take an excellent nature walk through Glen Canyon, the Presidio, Stern Grove, or Golden Gate Park. All fine places, but they don't scratch that old itch for open, grassy hills and twisted oak trees. So look a little farther afield and contemplate these options.

Just north of Novato is Olompali State Historic Park, with views eastward over the Petaluma River Valley and San Pablo Bay and trails up Mount Burdell. The trick to getting there is that you must pass it going north on Highway 101 and then carefully make a U-turn at San Antonio Road and drive south on 101 to the park entrance. Dogs aren't permitted, but humans and horses can find great trails to explore. This is a perfect spot to contemplate the lives of Bay Area residents before the coming of the Europeans. The Miwok made this place home from about 6000 B.C. until the 1850s; consider the concept of an 8,000-year sense of home as you walk these paths.

In the East Bay are the pleasures of Tilden. Located in the Berkeley hills, this beautiful park boasts more than 2,000 acres in which a variety of activities can be enjoyed. For the first walk of the year, though, save the steam train, carousel, and petting zoo for later and instead set out on one of the many trails (a good map is available at the East Bay Regional Park District Web site). These paths wind among eucalyptus trees and over hilltops with amazing views, and some also take you along roads as well. Don't underestimate the beneficial effects of removing from your field of vision the constant barrage of advertising we experience in urban environments. Get out to the green places and find some stillness. (Note that Tilden's South Park Drive entrance is closed through March to protect migrating newts. How cool is that?)

When it's big vistas you need, it's hard to do better than the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve to the south of San Francisco off Highway 35 in San Mateo County. Fill a backpack with a picnic lunch and a bottle of water, put on your hiking shoes, grab your windbreaker, and lose yourself for the day wandering and admiring the views. From the highest points in your explorations you'll be rewarded by incredible 360-degree panoramas of the entire Bay Area. You won't get the lovely show of wildflowers that spring brings, but the waving grasses and soaring hawks make this place beautiful year-round.

Perhaps, like me, you've been dazzled by the beauty of New Zealand, which stands in for Tolkein's Middle-Earth in The Lord of the Rings films. I've daydreamed about traveling there someday, but in the meantime, and on my current budget, it's good to be here in northern California. It's worth stepping outside into the brisk air of a new year, opening our eyes and discovering the lovely realms at our doorsteps. But I'll leave you with a warning from a great adventurer, Bilbo Baggins: "It's a dangerous business going out of your door; you step into the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."