Maybe Newton had it all wrong...

This tree is a descendant of Newton's apple of gravity.

Photo taken by Dexter_mixwith.

You may have heard the story. Or maybe you haven’t. According to Strange USA, in the 1950s, a school bus full of kids were coming home from a field trip when it skidded into a wash. Unfortunately, you know how this story ends. What you may not know is how the story continues.

Drive yourself over to the same spot, park your car in neutral, and let the kids take over from here. As the story goes, the kids who died will push your car out of danger to save you from the same demise. Put baby powder on your trunk and what do you see? Handprints.

All right, all right. So maybe that story is a complete hoax meant to keep new driver’s from playing around, but the real mystery here is what’s going on at a place

like this? I have two words for you: gravity hill.

Now, according to Wikipedia, a gravity hill is nothing more than an optical illusion where the surrounding layout makes a slight downhill slope look like an uphill. I don’t know about you, but from the stories I’ve heard, I can’t imagine that a lot of these hills are nothing bit our eyes playing tricks on us.

For your enjoyment, here is a list of local Gravity Hills in the Bay Area. I haven’t been to these, so I can’t personally vouch for any feelings of motion sickness or weightlessness. If anyone checks them out, comment and let me know what happens:

Antioch, California (site of the fabled bus crash)
The hill is on Empire Mine Road. This road has since been closed to the public. From East/West exit Highway 4 at Lone Tree Way, turn right on Deer Valley Road, turn right on Empire Mine Road. From South, take Ygnacio Valley Road, right on Clayton Road which becomes Marsh Creek Road, left on Deer Valley, left on Empire Mine Road.

Rohnert Park, California
From US 101 Freeway, take Rohnert Park Expressway east to Petaluma Hill Road. Petaluma Hill Road south to Roberts Road. Roberts road east to Lichau Road. At an iron gate with the words, "Gracias Santiago," is the start of the gravity hill section (located on the western slope of Sonoma Mountain.

Here is a video of a family experiencing the
Rohnert Park Gravity Hill.

This video was posted courtesy of Jim.
Livermore, California
On Patterson Pass road, between Livermore and Tracy. On road marker 752 headed towards Tracy.

Vallejo, California
Lake Herman Road off Columbus Parkway. Spot is at the bottom of the first hill where the road merges into single lanes.

Keep on the lookout for a post about one spot that’s a mystery that I have experienced and plan to do so again in the near future. Hint: It’s in Santa Cruz. In the meantime, I don't think I'll be playing around with the physics of Newton's apple tree.


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Map taken from Google Maps