Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve

Views along Skyline Blvd if you approach Sibley from Berkeley.

I continue to be blown away by all of the amazing hiking options in Oakland, and Sibley is no exception. Located off Skyline Blvd, high along the ridgeline of the Oakland Hills, this is a great park to enjoy with the family (dogs included). What sets Sibley apart from some of it's neighboring parks (Redwood Regional, Tilden, Joaquin Miller Park) is that it is home to a 10 million year old volcano. Over the life of the volcano, massive tectonic forces have tilted the volcano on it's side giving an unusual glimpse of the geology of the underlying rock. Additionally, there was substantial quarrying in the north half of the preserve that further revealed cross sections of the bedrock geology. 

If you're lucky, you will also get to enjoy a chorus of cows moo'ing (this was particularly exciting for the girls on our first visit to the park).

While getting to explore an extinct volcano is certainly a treat, one of the more celebrated aspects of the park are the labyrinths. If you search online for directions to the labyrinths you will find multiple accounts of where they are along with some very confusing directions. The most direct route to the most famous of the labyrinths, the Mazzariello Labyrinth, is to take the Round Top Loop Trail in a clockwise direction until you get to the overlook for Marker #2 (shown as Quarry Pit 2 on the map below). Start on the paved service road to the right of the visitors center/bathrooms. When you reach the junction of several trails, you will see a hill that goes up to the water tower (don't go up there like we did) at which point you should veer left and walk through the cattle gate. At the next trail junction you will see a sign that points to Marker #2.

From the Sibley Staging Area, start your hike along the paved service road to the right of the visitors center.

The best views of the Mazzariello labyrinth are from the northwest corner above the quarry, which you can access by walking along a small footpath that takes you to a higher vantage point of the quarry. On our first visit, this is where we turned around and called it a day (it was a late December morning and a very very cold 40 degrees out!). If you continue along that path, however, you will find yourself at another set of three labyrinths. Since we didn't take time to walk down to the bottom of the quarry for the first labyrinth, this was a fun chance to see the rock formations up close.

An added bonus is that the additional elevation of the second set of labyrinths gives way to some spectacular views of the Bay Area.

We continued along past the second set of labyrinths until the trail met up with the Volcanic Trail, which you can then use to cut back to the Round Top Trail Loop. Our first trip to the park was a simple out and back hike along the first portion of the Round Top Trail Loop. On our second visit, we did the entire Round Top Trail Loop, which takes you along a somewhat rocky dirt path through eucalyptus groves before it meets up with the trail you started on. This adds about a half mile to the hike and this portion of the trail can be particularly muddy if you are visiting shortly after heavy rains. Even if you aren't planning on doing the entire loop, it's worth climbing to the top of the hill that you will see just south of Overlook #2. The views of San Pablo Reservoir and the windmills in the distance are pretty amazing.

The windmills of the Altamont Pass can be seen in the distance on a clear day.

Have you hiked Sibley? Any trail recommendations?

Details: Sibley is located in the Oakland Hills off of Skyline Blvd. There is a small parking lot as well as street parking along the main road. During our visits during the winter there has been a bit of a temperature drop as we climbed the mountain, so bring layers. 

Rock City - Mt. Diablo State Park

Sentinal Rock - Rock City, Mt. Diablo

Over the recent holiday break we took a quick trip over to Indian Rock in Berkeley. If you haven't been, it's a massive rock in the Berkeley hills with steps carved into it that allow you to easily climb to the top for panoramic views of the Bay Area. You may have seen my instagram picture of the girls watching the sunset from the top of the rock. It was our first visit with the kids and I was nervous that the rock would be too challenging for them or dangerous. While there was definitely an additional level of caution and supervision required, the kids did shockingly well. My oldest (4.5 years old) was scaling the side of the rock like a little mountain goat! This immediately made me think that it was time for a visit to Mt. Diablo's Rock City.

The frown on her face is because I jokingly told her that we were going to leave her there. Apparently that's not funny :)

Rock City is like a natural amusement park for kids. Located just a few miles from the Summit of Mt. Diablo, this portion of the park is home to dozens of large rock formations, many of which have wind caves that have been carved out over the years. We had been holding off on this particular trip for a while thinking the rocks would be too challenging for younger kids to climb. What we failed to notice during previous trips (pre-kids) were all of the smaller rocks that are rather huge and impressive when you are 3.5 feet tall! Our 4 year old was eagerly running from one rock formation to the next, while our 2 year old was happy climbing over small boulders that lined the hiking trails.

One of the more challenging portions of the trail was the descent down the mountainside that takes you to the base of Sentinal Rock. As you approach the start of the trail, it appears that the hillside simply drops off, but as you creep along the ridge you are greeted by a set of stairs carved into the sandstone. They are steep, and a bit daunting, but our oldest handled them with ease (while I yelled out friendly reminders to slow down!).

A view of the steps from midway down the hillside. The kids at the top are sitting on the lip of the small pond shown in the previous picture.

At the bottom of the steps there are more large boulders to climb on and if you continue along the path you will find yourself at the base of Sentinal Rock (first picture of the post). Sentinal Rock has steps carved into the side and cables to grip as you climb to the top. My husband and I did the relatively easily climb years ago, but decided the kids were still too young for a trip to the top on this visit. The platform at the top is relatively small (enough to comfortably accommodate half a dozen people), but the barriers are nothing more than a couple of cables and would make me nervous with small children.

We took the steps back up the hill, and as you can see from this video, the climb was a cake walk for our oldest. The thrill of tackling the mountain and the large rocks was definitely energizing for them. After climbing what seemed like most of the rocks in the area, the kids explored the wind tunnels, which were particularly great for toddler aged kids.

 

As with our trip to Indian Rock, we had to pry the kids away when it was time to go. Even our walk to the car had several detours to explore "just one more rock".

Have you been to Rock City? Any suggestions for similar venues in Northern California?

P.S. You might like our hike through the rock caves at Pinnacles National Park.

If you want to see what we are up to, you can follow along on instagram, where I post more frequently on our weekly outings in the Bay Area. 

Details: Rock City is located off of South Gate Road approximately one mile north of the South Gate Kiosk. It is about a 30 minute drive from Berkeley. From 680 South, take exit 40 and follow signs for Mt.Diablo State Park. Access is $10/vehicle and there are several parking lots near the entrance to Rock City as well as dozens of picnic sites if you want to bring a meal along with you. You may want to wear either older clothing or pants that can take a beating, because the way down the rocks often involves sliding on your butt and we ended up with some small holes along the seam by the time our trip was over.

Urban Hiking: The Berkeley Paths

"Many of Berkeley’s hill areas were subdivided in the early 20th Century, before dominance of the automobile. Streets were generally laid out to follow curving contours, while 10-foot-wide city-owned rights of way were provided to make it easy for people to walk directly up and down hills." - Berkeleypath.org 

If you live in Berkeley, then you have probably heard about the Berkeley Paths, or stumbled upon one while walking around town. My mom grew up in North Berkeley and as a kid I spent a lot of time visiting with my grandma and Aunts (my youngest Aunt is only 6 years older than me!), so I have fond memories of exploring the hills and using the paths to cut through neighborhoods. Even as an adult, I get giddy when we are out for a walk and come across a staircase that cuts through a neighborhood. They are just SO CHARMING!

I have wanted to tackle the paths for a while now, but the idea of carrying my kids up the steep hills of Berkeley quickly put a damper on any future plans. If only I could find a way to just walk the downhill portion with the kids. And that's when the idea struck me! It's far from genius, but I felt like I had uncovered something magical when I realized that we could ride a bus to the top of the hill and then walk down using the paths. My kids LOVE riding the bus, so this made the adventure all the more exciting for them.

We started our urban hike at the intersection of Grizzly Peak and Stevenson Ave (We took the 65 bus from downtown Berkeley BART). There are a number of bus stops along Grizzly Peak that will put you in close proximity to one of the Berkeley Paths. You can use Google Pedometer to view the paths and map out your route ahead of time (which you can then save and pin for future reference or email to yourself). Here is the route we took if you're interested. (side-note: If you load the map onto your smartphone, then every time you refresh during the hike, it will track where you are in relation to the map, which was pretty handy!)

Our first path of the day! The Anne Brower Path.

My previous experiences with the Berkeley Paths had been much lower in the hills, where the pathways tend to be very formal and made of cement. As you go higher into the hills, the pathways are a bit wilder and constructed with large railwood ties along otherwise dirt or gravel paths. I loved this surprise and so did the kids! There was something much more exciting and adventurous about tromping along these dirt paths (in our case muddy paths since we went while it was raining).

Path #2, Betty Old's Path

Our third path, Whitaker Path. The kids loved the "tree tunnels".

The perfect stones for jumping!

Planning an urban hike along the paths was pretty easy. When viewing google maps, you can see the dashed lines cutting between the neighborhoods that represent the paths, and if you zoom in you can see the name of the path. As far as spotting the paths when you are up in the hills, they are all clearly marked with signs, just as you would expect at the intersection of two streets.

Two of our favorite paths along our hike were the Upper and Lower Covert path. It almost felt as though we were trespassing into a secret forest (the feeling of trespassing may also be because you are passing through people's side yards!). The lower Covert path had us crossing a small creek and ended with a water fall running down the hillside!

Upper Covert Path

On a clear day, there would be views of the bay from here.

Lower Covert Path, on our descent to the creek!

Crossing the creek

For the most part, as soon as we got to the bottom of one path, we could look down the street and quickly spot a sign for the next path. At the bottom of the Covert Paths, we had our longest stretch of walking along the road. It was only a couple of blocks and gave us a chance to admire the beautiful homes. 

Perhaps the cutest carport in Berkeley!

After our short detour, we arrived at the Tamalpais Path, by far the steepest path of them all.

The Tamalpais path runs along the northern most edge of Codornices Park and weather permitting, is a stop worth making. Aside from a lovely grass area for picnicking, it has THE BEST cement slide in the Bay Area (The. Best.). The park also has a short tunnel that passes below the road and provides access to the Berkeley Rose Garden, which has stunning views of the bay on a clear day, and of course hundreds of roses in the Spring and Summer.

If you have never been on a cement slide, they are amazing. You sit on a piece of cardboard (the park has tons, so you don't have to bring your own) and you FLY down the slide. It can be a little dangerous if you are going down with a kid in hand, be sure to tuck the little arms in and use your feet for brakes if needed (the added weight of an adult adds some serious speed!).

Once you reach Codornices Park, you are just a short distance to Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto, where you will find countless temptations for delicious ways to fill your belly. This portion of the walk also gives you a little insight into what locals refer to as "quirky Berkeley". Keep an eye out for interesting art installations and creative decor.

My youngest had a lot of fun with this home on Summer street, and insisted on taking a photo with the props. This home also had one of the more creative mailboxes I have seen in town.

Our last path of the day was the Berryman Path, which leads you to Live Oak Park where you will find lots of great picnic spots as well as an easily accessible creek for the kids to stomp around in.

While the hike in itself is a wonderful way to spend the day, it also happens to lead you to some of the best food in the East Bay. There are lots of fantastic options in the Gourmet Ghetto, and I would venture to say that you really can't go wrong with anything you choose. One of our favorite spots is the Cheeseboard Collective. Yes, it's insanely popular and there will be a line 50 people deep during the lunch hour, but the line moves quickly and it's well worth the wait. They serve one vegetarian pizza option each day with a small assortment of side salads and drinks. There is typically live music and some of the best people watching in town. So settle in at an outdoor table and reward yourself with some tasty pizza and wonderful music.

Any suggestions for future hikes along the Berkeley Paths?

Details: For information on all the Berkeley Paths, check out BerkeleyPaths.org. AC transit is free for kids under 5 (half off for youth), and adults can get a day pass for $5 that allows for unlimited rides for any given calendar day. You can either purchase the pass when boarding the bus, or by using your clipper card (which automatically stop charging you after you reach the $5 threshold for a day). We took the 65 bus from downtown Berkeley Bart and got off at the Stevenson stop along Grizzly Peak. Slices at Cheeseboard are $2.50, half a pizza is $10, whole is $20. This is the most budget friendly option in the neighborhood, but Gregoire is another casual option and if you just want dessert, then be sure to grab a mini cake from Masse's Pastries.