Claremont Canyon Trail Map
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Claremont Canyon Trail Map
by Joe Engbeck, October 15, 2010
Virtual tour of the canyon through time.
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CLAREMONT CANYON is one of the largest undeveloped canyons on the western side of the Oakland /Berkeley Hills. An oak/laurel forest covers much of its 500-plus acres; grassland and Baccharis-dominated scrub thrive on the warm, dry, south-facing slopes. Near the main watercourses in the upper canyon, coast redwoods were planted to replace some of the nine thousand fire-dangerous eucalyptus trees that were removed by the University of California during the last few years. Plants of special interest include the rare western leatherwood (Dirca occidentalis) and oracle oak, the latter thought to be a hybrid of black oak and interior live oak, neither of which now occur in the canyon. Wildlife is abundant, including birds of many kinds from hawks and owls to hummingbirds. They can best be seen by walking the trails that make it easy to explore the canyon on foot. Using Claremont Canyon trails, serious hikers can reach the National Skyline Ridge Trail, which runs north-south along the crest of the hills, connecting to Tilden Regional Park to the north and to Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve to the south. Spectacular vistas of San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate, Mount Tamalpais, and many Bay Area cit- ies can be enjoyed from overlooks within the canyon.
Claremont Avenue follows roughly the same route as the old Telegraph Road, which was built in the nineteenth century alongside the nation's first transcontinental telegraph line. Starting in the 1860s, horse-drawn wagons and stage coaches used the narrow, unpaved road through the canyon. Between April 1860 and October 1861 Pony Express riders occasionally used the road on their 1,900-mile-long trips between St. Joseph, Missouri and Oakland, California. Today, Claremont Avenue climbs up through the canyon to Grizzly Peak Boulevard at Four Corners (elevation 1,308 feet). Fish Ranch Road then continues down the other side of the hills to connect with State Highway 24 and the cities of Contra Costa County Springs and small seasonal streams drain the slopes below Grizzly Peak to form Claremont Creek, which makes its way down through the canyon to the vicinity of the Claremont Hotel. At that point, Claremont Creek crosses the Hayward Fault and flows out onto the broad relatively level plain of the east shore flatlands to join Temescal Creek before reaching San Francisco Bay.
Trails in the Canyon
The Panoramic Ridge Trail is the most popular trail in Claremont Canyon. Sometimes referred to as the East/ West Trail, it begins at the Stonewall Road entrance to Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve, and climbs steeply for about a half-mile, enabling hikers to enjoy spectacular vistas of almost the entire San Francisco Bay Region. The trail then levels out as it runs easterly for a half mile along the crest of Panoramic Ridge before beginning to climb steeply once again. At that point, Side Hill Trail angles off to the right, traversing an undisturbed south-facing slope that features a wonderful array of spring and early summer wildflowers as it climbs gently to reach Grizzly Peak Boulevard at about 1,600 feet elevation. The trail intersects Grizzly Peak Boulevard about .8 miles north of Four Corners.
An equally interesting but less well-known trail begins at the end of Norfolk Road (very limited park- ing) and continues down through Gwin Canyon on the south side of Claremont Canyon. At present, this trail dead-ends on the slope above Claremont Creek though the Conservancy is working with the East Bay Regional Park District to extend it all the way down to and across the creek and then up the north side of the canyon to intersect with the Panoramic Ridge Trail.
A couple of fire roads on University land in the upper canyon are open to hikers. One veers off from Claremont Avenue about .5 miles above Gelston Road at U.C. signpost 29 directly across the road from the dramatic, orange-hued, vertical layers of a geological formation known as Claremont Chert. The trail continues up the bottom of the canyon all the way to Four Corners.
Farther up Claremont Avenue at signpost 28, an- other university-maintained fire road climbs up a steep slope to the top of Panoramic Ridge where it's easy to cross over into Strawberry Canyon and connect with the Upper Jordan Trail.
Two short trails run through John Garber Park in the western-most part of Claremont Canyon (not far from the Claremont Hotel). One trail in this rustic, heavily wooded, 13-acre city park enters the park from Evergreen Lane (off Alvarado Road). Another trail enters the park from the end of Rispin Drive (off Claremont Avenue). Both entry points are in residential areas, are unsigned, and have very limited parking.
The network of trails in Claremont Canyon is a work in progress—and we invite your ideas. The Conservancy's long range plan calls for development of a walking trail right up the bottom of the canyon parallel to Claremont Avenue and Claremont Creek. The plan also calls for a mid-canyon trail that will run down through Gwin Canyon from Norfolk Road, cross the creek, and climb back up to the top of East-West Trail on Panoramic Ridge with its magnificent vistas of both urban and natural scenery. The Gwin Canyon Trail already exists; the rest of the cross-canyon trail is still awaiting formal approval and construction by the East Bay Regional Park District.
