A Well-loved Path in Oakland’s Redwoods on the Ridge Trail

The Ridge Trail through Redwood Regional Park to the Bort Staging Area in Anthony Chabot Regional Park passes through the East Bay’s only redwood forest of consequence before descending sharply into a wooded canyon and rising again into hilltop meadows. The trail is wide and heavily used. Find a trail map here.

We are hiking the 390-mile Bay Area Ridge Trail. Sign up to follow our progress here.

DATE HIKED: June 4, 2021

Dan’s Journal

I love a good walk in a redwood forest – the towering trees, the carpet of ferns, the cool shade. What’s not to like?

Some of my favorite hikes close to home on the San Francisco Peninsula include Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Sam McDonald Park and Purisima Creek Redwoods Preserve. In the northern part of the state, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is astonishingly beautiful.

So where does that leave Redwood Regional Park? While the forest doesn’t crack my personal Top 10 list, the East Bay’s little slice of redwood heaven is obviously well-loved.

The proximity to the hillside neighborhoods east of Oakland, the parking lot churn and the dozens of dog walkers enjoying the wide, well-worn trails on a sunny Friday morning suggested the crowd at the park was decidedly local.

And locals love their home town grove. Don’t believe it? Just ask me about the forest along Purisima Creek.

Dawn’s Journal

Redwood Regional Park is an excellent example of the kinds of wonderful community parks available in the Bay Area. The redwoods are not as dense, but the forest provides a wonderful respite from the East Bay heat.

Open spaces of all description dot the Bay Area, due to the foresight of a century of planning by individuals and communities. An impressive one million acres (27 percent) of the region is protected open space.

This is also one of the few parks we have encountered that allows professional dog walkers. We passed 60 dogs before I lost count. The politeness of the walkers and their charges was impressive, even those off-leash. Except for the Basset Hound. He was shamelessly soliciting pats from every hiker he encountered — 75 pounds of drooling, geriatric, saggy-eyed hopefulness.

He was easy to outrun.