East Bay Trails

“Hi everyone that reads this post,

I recently moved from Chicago to California (San Ramon...33 miles from SFC to be precise)....these days I do not have enough time but I do want to get out on the weekends and I am looking for some trails (5-7 hours total time)...any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

NCaliGuy”

“Mt. Diablo
Ohlone Regional Wilderness
Tilden Park
Wildcat Canyon
Redwood Regional Park
Chabot Regional Park

If you're willing to drive a couple hours than there's also Pinnacles near Holister, Big Basin and Castle Rocks in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Pt. Reyes and Mt. Tam in Marin.”

“Muir Woods has some nice hiking, too.”

“1. Big Basin Redwood SP, Santa Cruz area, not too far.
2. Pt. Reyes
3. You're really not that far from the Sierra via I80. From San Ramon maybe 5 hours (I live in Sac & go to San Ramon a lot for biz). There is nothing like the mountains.
4. Closer to home, it is worthwhile to hike around Mt Tamalpais (SP?).
5. Also closer to home, spend some time at Golden Gate. Here's a cut&paste...


The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is the largest urban national park in the world. The total park area is 74,000 acres of land and water. Approximately 28 miles of coastline lie within its boundaries. It is nearly two and one-half times the size of San Francisco.”

“Forgot about that until I read Dunk's post, there are some awesome wildflowers in the Spring on Diablo, plus for some reasoin it's just a fun hike. Maybe it's because you're so close to major population, yet, the times I've been there it hasn't seemed over-crowded.”

“Welcome to California and Trail Talk.

My sister lives in Oakland and it is amazing how many great places there are for hiking within half an hour from her house. Get to know the Berkeley/Oakland hills. There are lots of books available and once you get to the various park headquarters most of them have pretty good trail guides. Not much by way of solitude, in my experience.

Of course, the real great hiking is in the Sierra but that is several hours away for you.”

“There is also Henry Coe State Park, located east of Morgan Hill, about 1 hour from San Ramon.”

“Another option, which is a little hard to find, but fairly close to you in San Hambone is Ohlone Wilderness. I think you can actually camp there. A couple winters ago, a couple of my friends set out for a long trail run to Rose Peak (el. 3817') and found themselves in quite a snowstorm. They were well prepared, so made it out just fine, with a lot of cool photos! I haven't hiked there, but will someday. Best in winter and spring. Also, if you check out Tom Stienstra's archive, you'll find a lot of ideas (he's the outdoors columnist for the Chronicle).”

“I thank you all. For some of the trails, I found directions on this site itself so I will head out this coming weekend. Thanks again.

NC”