Challenges accepted: 4 counties, 4 hikes in the Bay Area

The abundant trail networks crisscrossing the Bay Area are one of the region’s finest recreational features for hikers in the know - and, better yet, most are free or low-cost.

But knowing where to even start hiking can feel overwhelming. So we went out and tested out the hiking suggestions from some of the most enthusiastic evangelists of the region’s trail networks: Staff and rangers in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Each team has crafted its own accessible yet adventurous challenge to get people outside and exploring.

THE CHALLENGES

East Bay Regional Parks Trails Challenge

Trails Challenge program

For 2026, the challenge highlights trails in 20 different parks with a focus on scenic overlooks, striking shorelines and unique features like historic landmarks. The trails range from easy (relatively flat, 1-6 miles) to moderate (60-900 feet of elevation gain, 3-8 miles) to challenging (up to 2,000 feet of elevation gain, 5-10 or more miles). Participants can walk, bike or ride horseback.

“The East Bay Regional Parks Trails Challenge is a great way to explore Regional Parks - not only a person's regular favorites, but also planning adventures to parks farther out,” Mike Moran, the district’s interpretive and recreation-services manager, explained in a statement. "Visitors can be on the beach today observing shorebirds, then tomorrow head into the redwood groves found in the Berkeley and Oakland hills or tackle a long stretch of the oak-covered Pleasanton Ridge."

The goal is to complete five of the trails or 26.2 cumulative miles (a marathon’s distance) on any of the trails by Dec. 31. Anyone who finishes the challenge can submit their trail log online to qualify for monthly prize drawings and other giveaways while supplies last. Prizes include commemorative pins and bandanas, embroidered patches and other gear from sponsor AllTrails. Challenge guidebooks are available at most East Bay Regional Parks visitor centers or at the district’s website (ebparks.org/things-to-do/trails-challenge).

San Mateo County’s Take a Hike Challenge

Meanwhile, in San Mateo County, the parks department operates a Take a Hike Challenge in which participants are directed to seek out seven different hikes throughout the county, from San Bruno Mountain near the San Francisco International Airport to Sam McDonald Park deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

To prove they’ve done each hike, visitors are asked to take a photo at a specific scenic point along the trail indicated in the challenge directions. People who complete four of the hikes and submit their results receive a spiral notebook and a beanie. Those who complete all seven get those prizes plus a fanny pack. Prizes are limited to the first 150 participants to complete the challenges.

Santa Clara County Parks’ Movie Night in the Park

And in Santa Clara County, an extended program called Hike and Seek, in which hikers would request bingo cards to fill out when they saw different plant and animal species while out in the parks, unfortunately ended at the close of April. However, the parks department is hosting a free movie night series this summer, and we think a great challenge is to pair your next movie-in-the-park night with a little hike beforehand.

Here’s the Movie Night in the Park series schedule:

• 8 p.m. June 27, Hellyer County Park: “Selena”
• 8 p.m. July 10, Vasona Lake County Park: “Bumblebee”
• 8 p.m. July 24, Hellyer County Park: “Elemental”
• 8 p.m. Aug. 4, Joseph D. Grant County Park: “How To Train Your Dragon”
• 8 p.m. Aug. 8, Hellyer County Park: “Shrek”
• 8 p.m. Aug. 15, Vasona Lake County Park: “Wild Robot”
• 8 p.m. Aug. 22, Mount Madonna County Park: “A Bug's Life”

In short, no matter where you are in the Bay Area, the invitation to get out there and explore this spring beckons. Maybe you can even win a prize, or at least catch a free movie.

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Geocaching Program

Looking to embark on a separate, even more ambitious challenge? The Midpeninsula Open Space District, which manages public lands from Half Moon Bay to near Almaden, has hidden geocaches at all 25 of the district’s publicly accessible open space preserves.

Pick up a preserve geocache circuit passport from the district (by visiting its Los Altos office or requesting one by email). Using the mobile app available at geocaching.com, look up the coordinates of the district’s geocaches and track them down in a form of tech-enabled treasure hunting. Then, you can sign the logbook and collect a stamp for your passport.

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“It’s a great way to bridge the divide for some who may be more comfortable with technology, or who are looking to gamify their outdoor experience,” says Ryan McCauley, district spokesperson. “Geocaching is just another opportunity and way for folks to explore these outdoor spaces that are in our backyard.”

People who collect all 25 stamps get a customized commemorative geocoin, and, for the 16-and-younger crowd, 12 stamps will get the passport holder a special keychain. Most are hidden in relatively easy-to-access areas, according to McCauley.

Additionally, the district is currently hosting its annual photo contest, which runs through July 31. There are six categories, and according to McCauley, each winner will receive a $100 REI gift card, district swag and bragging rights.

OUR HIKES

Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline, Martinez (Contra Costa County)

This park is located on the rolling hills of northern Contra Costa County, offering impressive views of giant ships and tugboats in the Carquinez Strait, part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers. At 3.7 miles and 928 feet of elevation gain, this particular trail is listed in the East Bay Regional Parks Trails Challenge as having "moderate" difficulty, which the parks district says requires "good physical condition" to tackle.

On a sunny day, they’re not lying. Bring water and sunblock, as shade is scarce. The trail is two loops connected by a short path you’ll double-back on, kind of like a badly drawn figure 8.

To find the beginning, Google Map your way to the Nejedly Staging Area, and while there, feel free to check the park’s online reviews. "Dry, golden hills, soft curves, thirsty for rain. Hot, steep," says one person.

The vegetation is mostly grassland, which shines with an almost alien-green intensity in the spring, dotted with copses of twisted oak and buckeye trees. Wildlife includes screeching red-tailed hawks, kestrels and golden eagles, gray foxes, mule deer, raccoons and Botta’s pocket gophers. You probably won’t see that last guy, as it spends 90% of its life in a burrow, lazily pulling plants down by their roots to munch.

The animals you’ll encounter the most at the start of the hike are insects. Going uphill through a forest, the trail cozies up next to a streambed, and it’s quite popular for the six-legged set. A hidden orchestra saws and creaks in the canopy. Tiny bugs float in the sun like dust motes, and there are graceful flies large enough to require a runway landing.

After some cardio, the trail exits into full sun and the territory of different animals. This is grazing land, and there are often cows; be sure to give them space, especially during calving season.

From here on, it can help to hum that Black Eyed Peas song – "my hump, my hump, my hump" – as you chug up, down and around grassy hills. Each new hill brings a slightly different and powerful view of Martinez and its petroleum refinery infrastructure; farther in the horizon, like a mirage of an ivory city, shimmers a wind-turbine farm.

Up here, landmarks on the trail are subtle and surreal. A metal signpost seems to have melted down – victim of a lightning strike, perhaps? Or a really mad hiker with a sledgehammer. Sun-baked cow patties take on the silver coloring of liquid mercury. Huge, black ants carry detritus into golf course-sized holes, and Delta tule peas and fire poppies splash the hills like purple-orange paint.

A white crucifix looms over the land and its dead. There are a couple of cemeteries here, including St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Cemetery and Alhambra Pioneer Cemetery. Residents of the latter include Captain Joseph Rutherford Walker, the first Westerner to glimpse the Yosemite Valley. There’s also Eliza Notthingham, who as a child once saved a young Abraham Lincoln from drowning in a Kentucky creek.

The trail eventually tilts back down toward the city, where car honks and train horns replace the cries of birds and insects. Sometimes, the crowd at a nearby ballpark will issue a rousing cheer – as if congratulating you on a hike well done.

Details: Open 8 a.m.-sunset (varies seasonally) at 2 Carquinez Scenic Dr., Martinez; ebparks.org/parks/carquinez-strait

Tilden Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Berkeley (Alameda County)

This jaunt is one of the shortest in this year’s East Bay Regional Park District challenge. It’s listed as "easy" at 0.5 miles and 36 feet of elevation gain. It’s also one of the most interesting, being set within a botanical garden and its lush landscaping of rare and threatened plants, representing 10 native biomes in California.

"The state is a vast region of many floral areas, such as seacoast bluffs and coastal mountains, interior valleys, arid foothills, alpine zones and two kinds of desert," the park district writes. "California embraces nearly 160,000 square miles - imagine 160,000 square miles of California set in a garden that can be walked in a day."

From the front gate, take a left to enter the outer path that circles the garden. Parts, but not all, of the trail are accessible for visitors with mobility challenges. Some smaller paths veer off in interesting directions; feel free to explore those, too. You’ll no doubt be rewarded with the sight of a funny-sounding plant, like an Inside-Out Flower or Ticklegrass, an Old Man's Whiskers or Glandular Labrador-tea.

Near the entrance is the visitor’s center. Step in if you’d like to see a rockin’ collection of giant pine cones: Did you know the Coulter Pine produces 5-pound, spine-tipped ones? One falling would certainly cave your dome. There are also packets of native seeds for a few bucks, and if you’re interested in rounding out your garden, be sure to check out the plant sales here on Wednesdays and the first Saturday of each month (details at nativeplants.org).

The trail crosses a burbling, stone-lined stream that feeds into the garden’s riparian zones. In parts of a creek, you can sometimes see rainbow trout, and in a pond, sometimes newts. The flowers here bloom from mid-December through the summer, inviting another elusive animal – Anna's hummingbirds, which buzz around the blossoms collecting nectar.

The sequoia ecosystem is like a little bit of Humboldt County warped into the East Bay. Like an old-growth forest, it’s quiet – almost too quiet, suggesting there may be a Bigfoot tramping nearby in the redwood sorrel. That doesn’t stop people from enjoying themselves here. Children run on paths among trees with trunk diameters more than 10 times their own. And there’s a fairy circle of grand conifers, whose center is perfect for picnicking - or perhaps casting witchy spells.

Toward the back of the sequoia grove is a "moon tree." Yes, you read that right: It’s a coast redwood grown from seeds that traveled to the moon during 1971’s Apollo 14 mission. This year’s Artemis II mission also transported tree seeds, which raises the question of what these scientists are up to. The tree doesn’t have tentacles or speak with a booming, telepathic voice or anything cool like that. But it’s fun to imagine.

In a low meadow, you’ll encounter a "crevice garden." Seven-foot slabs of slate and schist are stood up against one another, like a sliced loaf, to re-create the naturally rocky outcrops of the eastern Sierras. Plants you’ll find at high altitudes flourish in the cracks, like rock spiraea and alpine sedge, giving a little taste of nostalgia for the mountain climbers out there.

Follow the trail along Wildcat Creek for a peaceful diversion into a miniature valley of wooden bridges, moss-covered boulders and Jurassic-looking ferns. Plants like sweetshrub and wild ginger invoke pleasant sense memories, and then – blech! – there’s "skunk bush." The trail hits a dead-end here, sending you back toward the entrance, but the zenlike peace of the valley will stick with you for a while.

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The last leg of the trail runs through a section devoted to the Channel Islands of Southern California. Some evolutionary lessons are here: There are ironwood trees that grow on two of the islands but have different characteristics due to the differing amounts of wind and sun. And right before you exit, you’ll find a glossy-leaved plant, whose leaves turn lovely crimson in the fall. A sign identifies it as "toxicodendron diversilobum" – poison oak. Please don’t touch it as you exit through the gate.

Details: Open 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. October-May and 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. June-September at 1550 Wildcat Canyon Road, Berkeley; free admission, no dogs allowed, ebparks.org/parks/tilden/botanic-garden

Wunderlich County Park, Woodside (San Mateo County)

Towering redwoods, meticulously groomed horses and … Folgers Coffee? Yup, all three are hallmarks of this San Mateo County park in Woodside. What’s now a gorgeous trail network built into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains was once the estate of the Folger family of Folgers Coffee fame.

On weekends, you can visit the restored Carriage House Museum on-site and peek inside at the stables where happy horses live beneath high ceilings and amid enviable allotments of square footage.

At Wunderlich, your objective - as dictated by San Mateo County’s Take a Hike Challenge, that is - is a 4.4-mile loop that, either way you take it, goes up (and up) before it comes down, and the photo point is at the far end of the loop, at a spot called the Meadows. If you take it clockwise, you’ll travel up Alambique trail past a horse arena, then up through groves of redwood trees, then eucalyptus and tanoak.

You’ll know you’ve arrived at the photo point because the forest clears out to reveal a meadow. From there, you’ll continue onward along the lushly shaded Bear Gulch Trail, following switchbacks back to your starting point.

Details: Open 8 a.m. daily, with the closing time depending on the time of year, at 4040 Woodside Road, Woodside; smcgov.org/parks/wunderlich-park

Hellyer County Park, San Jose (Santa Clara County)

When it comes to the Santa Clara County parks system, there are plenty of gems absolutely worth planning a trip to, like the waterfalls at Uvas Canyon County Park, or perhaps an overnighter to the yurts at Mount Madonna County Park.

But for an everyday nature escape? Hellyer County Park is ideal. This south San Jose refuge has Cottonwood Lake, a velodrome, a disc golf course, a dog park, picnic facilities galore and, for those who need or prefer a paved path over a dirt one for their nature exploration, a great starting point for exploring the Coyote Creek Parkway. And if you go June 27, July 24 or Aug. 8, you can catch a free movie in the park afterward, too.

Friendly to pedestrians, strollers, pups, cyclists, wheelchairs and more, an out-and-back on this relatively flat path offers an accessible choose-your-own adventure layout. Stroll about a half mile to access Cottonwood Lake, which was recently surrounded in yellow wildflower blooms.

Or continue onward along the creek, stopping to say hi to the plethora of well-fed ground squirrels, and take in the lush greenery before it turns golden-brown in the South Bay heat. Do keep an eye out for poison oak, which appears to be thriving in some creekside areas. Caffeine-motivated walkers can take the trail 3 miles to Silver Creek Valley Road and detour to Insomnibar, where creative Vietnamese coffee and boba creations are available for sipping in elegant digs.

Details: Open 8 a.m.-sunset daily at 985 Hellyer Ave., San Jose; parking is $6; parks.santaclaracounty.gov/locations/hellyer-county-park

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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 9:42 AM.