Dublin Hills Hike

For the first weekend of fall we decided to go hiking. We were hoping for nice weather but it turned out to be a very warm weekend. Despite the weather forecast we decided to go to Dublin Hills for our hike. Dublin Hills is EBRPD's newest park and is located just a short drive from I-580. We parked at the Donlan Point Staging Area, which has a good sized parking lot, restrooms and picnic tables. The trailhead here is hard to miss. We started our hike on the Calaveras Ridge Regional Trail, a dirt trail. It starts off fairly flat, following along a new housing development. After half a mile we took a detour up to Donlan Point. After climbing for a quarter of a mile we reached the peak. Here we were able to see views of Dublin, the freeway and the edge of Castro Valley. We made our way back down to continue on the main trail. We could still see views of the city of Dublin from here. The rest of the trail consisted of rolling hills and remained exposed. Because of the hot weather we decided to turn around after just over a mile. We saw a few lizards and a snake. There were a few others on the trail but it was not busy by any means. After 3.25 miles total we were back at the parking lot. It was a nice easy hike, it took us about an hour and 15 minutes. We definitely plan on going back to the park, possibly for a trail run. It will be nice when the construction on the nearby housing development is done so that you don't hear the noise at the beginning of the hike and when the remaining future trails are completed.