Hiking Coyote Hills Regional Park
Jul. 7th, 2021 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerOn Monday this past holiday weekend we visited Coyote Hills Regional Park. The Coyote Hills are set of unusual hills rising up from the miles of evaporation ponds near the south end of the San Francisco Bay. They're not mountains as they're only a few hundred feet tall ("mountain" = 1,000+ ft. elevation) but they are startling to see rising straight up out of the marshland, especially as you pass right alongside their southern edge on Highway 84 going to/from the Dumbarton Bridge.
It's especially startling that this park is so close to our home, less than 20 miles away via shortest route, and is centered around hills we've driven past on the highway countless times, yet this weekend was the first time we thought to visit.
"Meh, Fremont," was even my first response on Monday when Hawk suggested it. Fremont is a poor cousin within the South Bay, and for years the bayfront side of town was known as a rough area. As in, park your car there to go on a hike for 2 hours and it'll be broken into & robbed when you return. But this was a county park, not just some pull-off spot on the side of a remote road, and the trail description in our guidebook— hills, bay views, herons, hawks, and falcons— was compelling.
As we drove into the park one of the first things we noticed were signs warning us to hide valuables and lock our cars to prevent break-ins. Some things never change... or if they do, they change slowly. 🙄 We parked in a busy area with couples and families coming and going. Foreshadowing: the car was all in one piece when we returned.
We selected a 5 mile loop hike that offered a bit of everything. From the parking we headed north, first on a paved fire road then on a dirt path that angled up to a saddle between two of the hills. A brutal but short leg of trail led straight up the side of Nike Hill.
![Coyote Hills Regional Park in Fremont, California [July 2021]](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/canyonwalker/33413618/748940/748940_original.jpg "Coyote Hills Regional Park in Fremont, California [July 2021]")
A view of the Coyote Hills from atop Nike Hill. The park headquarters is amid the grove of green trees nestled at the base of Red Hill, the highest peak in the park.
From atop Nike Hill (photo above) we could see much of the park, including Red Hill, the highest peak at 292 ft., the trail along the ridge that we'd be hiking toward the end of our loop, and the visitors center, hidden among the copse of trees at the base of the peak on the left side.
Ah, but there was also more. In a moment we'd loop around to views across the San Francisco Bay that stretched for miles. Stay tuned!
Update: Continue reading in Part 2.
It's especially startling that this park is so close to our home, less than 20 miles away via shortest route, and is centered around hills we've driven past on the highway countless times, yet this weekend was the first time we thought to visit.
"Meh, Fremont," was even my first response on Monday when Hawk suggested it. Fremont is a poor cousin within the South Bay, and for years the bayfront side of town was known as a rough area. As in, park your car there to go on a hike for 2 hours and it'll be broken into & robbed when you return. But this was a county park, not just some pull-off spot on the side of a remote road, and the trail description in our guidebook— hills, bay views, herons, hawks, and falcons— was compelling.
As we drove into the park one of the first things we noticed were signs warning us to hide valuables and lock our cars to prevent break-ins. Some things never change... or if they do, they change slowly. 🙄 We parked in a busy area with couples and families coming and going. Foreshadowing: the car was all in one piece when we returned.
We selected a 5 mile loop hike that offered a bit of everything. From the parking we headed north, first on a paved fire road then on a dirt path that angled up to a saddle between two of the hills. A brutal but short leg of trail led straight up the side of Nike Hill.
A view of the Coyote Hills from atop Nike Hill. The park headquarters is amid the grove of green trees nestled at the base of Red Hill, the highest peak in the park.
From atop Nike Hill (photo above) we could see much of the park, including Red Hill, the highest peak at 292 ft., the trail along the ridge that we'd be hiking toward the end of our loop, and the visitors center, hidden among the copse of trees at the base of the peak on the left side.
Ah, but there was also more. In a moment we'd loop around to views across the San Francisco Bay that stretched for miles. Stay tuned!
Update: Continue reading in Part 2.
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Date: 2021-07-08 01:54 pm (UTC)