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Valle Vista Staging Area & King Canyon Loop
Trail Upper San Leandro Reservoir is almost a secret place, visible from Redwood Road and Canyon Road but always far from the nearby cities and suburbs. King Canyon Loop is one of the few trails giving access to the 27,000 acres of EBMUD watershed, closed to the public for protection of four drinking-water reservoirs. For $10 you can get a permit for a year's use of these trails, and on them you'll get away from the crowds in similar nearby Regional Parks. But none of the watershed trails I've tried so far are easy in a wheelchair. |
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the first 100 yards of the King Canyon trail, heading east from the Valle
Vista staging area, is a bit hairy, with a short steep dip I had to take
backwards, to a pretty stretch of footpath that was muddy in wet weather,
which emerged in a short climb to the pictured bridge over San Leandro
Creek, where exotically marked wood ducks often paddle. From here the
surface is medium rough gravel running fairly level for the next 0.3 mile,
as you bear right at each fork, passing west of clusters of horses on
private land, over meadows dotted with feral fruit trees, oaks, and pines,
some hung with nest boxes for the ducks and for bluebirds.Then the trail
overlooks reedy shallows where swifts dart and cormorants fish, before
taking a roller-coaster course on steep wooded hillsides along Upper San
Leandro Reservoir's narrow arms. |
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Getting there: For permits, call (925)254-3778 or (510)287-0459. From Orinda go south 4.8 miles on Moraga Way; turn right onto Canyon Road and go 1.2 miles to Valle Vista Staging Area. Large gravel parking lot has no designated parking; there is an accessible portapotty. No bicycles; non-service dogs allowed only for first 3.1 miles |
Here the road cut exposes rough-edged, improbably folded ribbons of
sedimentary rock, and transmission towers march so close you can hear
them hissing and spitting. I only went a few miles, and though I met
no impossible barrier I've been reliably informed that it would be very
hard ro complete the five-mile loop. If you have done it, or explored
the connecting trails to Las Trampas and Lake Chabot Regional Parks
I want to hear about it!