Distance: up to you
My rating: hard to strenuous
If you’re in San Francisco, Oakland, or Berkeley and want a butt-kicking hike, come to this regional preserve. I thought Pincushion Peak was hard. This is Pincushion x 100.
This park is east of downtown Berkeley, and the entrance is off of Stonewall Rd. We found street parking on a neighboring side street.
The Stonewall-Panoramic Trail is the main trail from the parking area. It’s a grueling 3/4 miles, seemingly straight uphill to the top of Panoramic Hill.
The views truly are panoramic. I’m a huge fan of being in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by wilderness, but this was an extremely enjoyable view for an urban hike.
To the way right is the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, straight ahead is the Golden Gate Bridge, and just left is downtown SF and the Bay Bridge. Seriously, panoramic views.
If you have more gas in your tank, keep going. There are more steep hills to climb.
The fire trail winds all across Skyline Ridge. Then, to be honest, it becomes a maze of crisscrossing trail options. We tried to cut back around at one point to shorten our loop, but ended up walking way off track and making the hike even longer. The distance on this hike is completely up to you.
On our hike, the trail was muddy in spots. I got more poison oak walking around the mud, and we ended up in a hilly neighborhood going the wrong way. Suddenly, I didn’t like this urban hike anymore. That’s our fault, though.
We eventually ended up at the Clark Kerr Track, and found our way back to the car.
Moral of the story: pay attention to your GPS or map. Or maybe don’t tackle and entire regional park at once with limited time. 🙂
I still highly recommend this hike for the views, they’re a fantastic reward for some serious hard work.