Las Trampas Wilderness Regional Preserve — Attraction in Danville

Started hiking here over forty years ago and still love this place. Park in the parking lot at the very end of Bollinger Canyon and you'll notice the paved trail (closed service road) that leads to the top. This road is about a mile long and rises in elevation approximately 1000'. The road leads to a an antenna site that sits on the top of the ridge. About a 100 yards to the west, across open fields, is a second ridge from which you can see San Francisco Bay and the skyscrapers in downtown San Francisco. Tremendous views all around. If your'e still up for a bit more hiking head south from the antenna site, going parallel to the ridge to the west. As you hike south, along a dirt road through open meadows, you'll notice that the ridge to the west drops off sharply and then rises rapidly again. On this second section of ridge, which has lots of trees, there are also many exposed rock formations. In one of these rocky sections is a small sandstone cave that is open to the east but also has a "window"...

Very nice area for recreational activities like mountain biking and hiking with great vista views of many local valleys. Most trails are fire trails, rarely plowed, with loose over hard pack dirt mostly, some rocky sections, and some severely torn up by dry mud cow footprints soon after rainy season. Most trails are steep that traverse up the canyons, some very hard up to 40% grade for over 1 mile. Pack water and some more water and food for extended activities. Watch out for the prevalent poison oak, and there are also ticks and snakes. Animals you may find could be cows, turkeys, vultures, wild cats, maybe some deer. Sunscreen any time other than winter but lots of areas are covered with shady trees, but some long sun exposed trails as well. Ridge trail is long and nice bike ride up to about 1800 elevation, makes for some long steep gnarly downhills. Many friendly trails users around so keep an eye out. Pics from 3 different trips, and reason for -1 star is steepness and...

Generally I’m not a fan of hiking in the East Bay, as I find the parks/trails to be generally exposed hillsides with lots of ups and downs (for no reason) - at least compared to the trails on the Peninsula and North Bay. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the Corduroy Hills hikes in Las Trampas. Given the number of cars in the parking areas on Sunday morning, I was really concerned that the trails would be overly busy, but it seems like most folks opted for Rocky Ridge (on the opposite side of the canyon/park). Corduroy hills is about six miles and involves 2,000 feet of elevation change - definitely one of the tougher hikes given the distance. It’s a loop trail that offers nice views of Mt. Diablo and the Las Trampas canyon area. Partial shade is probably the best way to describe it as you meander in and out of tree covered areas, and then spend about half the hike on exposed grasslands. All-in-all a solid hike that isn’t nearly as crowded as I would...