This week we headed up 680 to to the Dublin Hills Regional Park
There are a ton of regional parks in the East Bay, and we will be hitting up lots of them in future Wicked Hike Wednesdays. We decided to head to Dublin Hills this week for a few reasons, mainly it was supposed to be pretty windy which would be nice because today was peaking over 90 in some areas, and because it was reasonably close, less than a 30 min drive.
We went specifically to the Donlon Point Staging Area (37.699875, -121.975208). We were NOT going to make this a day where we drove "to" a park and then spent another 20 mins finding out where in the hell we were supposed to actually park. Thanks Google for doing that to us many times before. We really recommend starting here, there are restrooms, tons of parking (both paved and unpaved), and it's super easy to find. Below is some signage, the second of which will inform you that this area is OK for off leash dogs! Now, Kenga and Nali and noooot off leash dogs. That being said, we do like off leash OK areas because we know other dog owners find that important.
The hike starts, and stays for a while, within the confines of a large housing development. We only went for 2 miles today, largely because of the heat, so we were near the houses the whole time. We met a flock of poodles on our way off, who were off leash and loving it. Kenga and Nali said hey, and we kept on our way. You start uphill, nothing like last weeks hike, but still a healthy incline. After about a quarter mile, you're above all the houses and the view become pretty nice.
The rolling hills
really start to stretch out ahead of you...
You can see some nice homes
and I imagine this is even nicer when the hills are green
Eventually you come to a gate and then a fork in the trail, where we turned right and not long after that a fork.
We headed left at the fork up a much steeper trail to a vista point. It was a short detour, but well worth it.
Nali wanted to enjoy the view, Kenga wanted some model pics. Either way, we took a water break at the bench and then headed on down the hill to the main trail
From here it was a straight shot onward about another half mile until we turned around. You can go a lot, a LOT, further. We will definitely be back on a cooler day for a longer exploration of this park!
Pros of this park?
- Huge visibility, every direction you look there are views. The vistas are also very nice.
- Easy Access. Parking lot was big and easy to find.
- Wide Trails. This is great for us because Nali like to get into all the plants, and try to eat and catch all the things...
- Windy! The dogs love wind, and in a generally hotter area, this is a big plus.
Cons of this park?
- Totally open. While this was a pro for visibility, it's also a con for it sadly means no shade! Every once in a while we like to take shady water breaks, and that's sadly a no-go here.
- Hot. Dublin is usually a hotter area, and in September it sure was. We started off and it was only around 80 and windy, but we turned around partly because the heat was climbing so quick. Definitely try to hit this place up early, and you can as it opens at 5AM!