East Bay Regional Park District,
Contra Costa County
1.5 mile partial loop on hills above Carquinez Strait.
Distance, category, and difficulty:
This 1.5 mile partial loop hike is very easy. Total elevation change is about 210 feet.
Exposure:
Totally exposed.
Trail traffic:
Moderate.
Trail surfaces:
Dirt fire roads.
Hilking time:
1hour.
Season:
Too hot in summer. Best in late winter and early spring.
Getting there:
From Interstate 80 in Contra Costa County, exit Cummings Skyway (exit 5). Drive south about 1.5 miles, then turn left onto Crockett Boulevard. Drive north on Crockett Boulevard about 1 mile, then turn right onto Pomona Street. After about 0.5 mile Pomona ends at a three way intersection. Bear right onto Carquinez Scenic Drive. Continue east less than 1 mile, then turn left into the Bull Valley Staging Area. Once inside the gate, turn right into the small parking lot (the road continues downhill to Eckley Pier).
GPS Coordinates for Trailhead:
Latitude
Longitude
Gas, food, and lodging:
Gas, pay phones, stores, and restaurants in Crockett. No camping.
Trailhead details:
No parking or entrance fees. Small paved parking lot. There's no drinking water, but there is a pit toilet, and maps are available at an information signboard. No handicapped parking, and trail access for wheelchairs is blocked by a cattle gate. There is no public transportation to the trailhead.
Rules:
Carquinez Strait is open from 8 a.m. to dusk (unless otherwise posted). All trails in this part of the park are multi-use. Dogs are permitted.
The Official Story:
EBRPD's Carquinez Strait page
EBRPD's Carquinez Strait brochure (pdf)
Map Choices:
• Use AAA's San Francisco Bay Region map to get there.
• Map from EBRPD
• 101 Great Hikes of the San Francisco Bay Area, by Ann Marie Brown (order this book from Amazon.com) has a simple map and descriptions of a featured hike.
In a nutshell -- a printable, text-only guide to this hike.
Carquinez
Strait Regional Shoreline is comprised 
of
two separate parkland parcels, both fronting their namesake waterway.
The eastern portion, on the outskirts of Martinez, offers hikes that climb
from the staging area to loop around grassy Franklin Ridge, with a series
of dead-end paths hanging off the loop like charms on a bracelet. The
park's western section, squeezed between Crockett and the tiny settlement
of Port Costa, hosts a handful of short trails, most of which directly
overlook Carquinez Strait. The two parts of this shoreline used to be
linked via Carquinez Scenic Drive, but a landslide closed the road and
now you must travel from west to east via Highway 4.
Begin from the parking lot, and walk
north on the paved park road to a gate. Once through the gate, pass
the pit toilet and you'll reach a T junction. The path to the left drops
to Eckley Pier. Turn right onto Carquinez Overlook Loop Trail.
T
he
broad multi-use trail heads east just downslope from a series of grassy
rolling hills on the right. To the left, the poison oak-dotted hillside
slopes toward Carquinez Strait, revealing sweeping views of the Carquinez
Bridge and Benicia. Although I arrived far too late in the year for wildflowers,
yellow star thistle's distinctive spikes were conspicuous, mixed through
dried stalks of fennel and yarrow. Butterflies fluttered about in September,
often landing on the coyote brush shrubs that punctuate the grassland.
Buckeyes were particularly abundant, but I also saw a green/yellow butterfly,
most likely a cabbage white, a butterfly that prefers plants in the mustard
family -- mustard is a common plant along the trail, blooming in summer.
At 0.10 mile, an unsigned fire road departs 
off
to the right, a spur which ends at "downtown" Port Costa. Continue
to the left, and ignore the well-worn path climbing to the hilltop on
the right. Carquinez Overlook Loop Trail continues at a nearly perfectly
level grade, sweeping around the hill. A bench off to the left is the
first of several good stops for lunch or quiet contemplation -- look for
vultures and hawks riding the thermals overhead. Bush lupine, coyote brush,
and poison oak spread across grassland on the right, as the trail approaches
a eucalyptus forest. An unsigned fire road breaks off to the left (not
on the map) at 0.36 mile. Continue straight to the next junction, at 0.50
mile (this one is signed), where the loop begins. Turn right.
A picnic table sits off to the right, near
where the shortcut path (the same one which departed to climb 
the
hill back at 0.10 mile) crosses the fire road. Carquinez Overlook Loop
Trail passes through eucalyptus woods, then emerges on the southern flank
of the hillside, where views extend to the surrounding rolling hills,
still almost completely undeveloped. You may hear traffic downhill on
Carquinez Scenic Drive. At 0.72 mile you'll pass the first of two dead-end
spurs on the right. Continue straight past both, then climb easily to
an overlook on the right. Follow the short path to a bench with
a knock-out view east, encompassing Mount Diablo, Carquinez Strait, Martinez,
and Benicia. If you walk a few feet down a worn path continuing down the
hill, you can also see the railroad tracks that cling to firm ground just
above the waterline. Walk back to Carquinez Overlook Loop Trail, and
continue, now heading west.
The fire road weaves through eucalyptus,
soon returning to close the loop at 1.0 mile. Continue straight, and retrace
your steps back to the trailhead.
Total distance: 1.50 miles
Last hiked: Tuesday, September 16, 2003
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