Completed: April 16, 2023 | Elevation: Las Trampas Peak – 1,827′, Vail Peak – 1,787′, Eagle Peak – 1,720′ | Trail: Bollinger Creek Loop-Bollinger Canyon-Las Trampas Ridge-Corduroy Hills | Distance: 4.7 miles
We used to live in San Ramon, not far from Las Trampas Wilderness Regional Preserve and would often find ourselves getting our exercise walking the paved Rocky Ridge View Trail. For all the times we’ve been to the preserve, however, it never occurred to us to venture into the hills on the east side of Bollinger Canyon Road. That finally changed over the weekend when we tackled Las Trampas’ three Nifty Ninety peaks: Las Trampas Peak, Vail Peak and Eagle Peak.
This was our route:
From the Bollinger Staging Area we passed through the gate near the picnic area and turned right onto Bollinger Creek Loop Trail As it paralleled the creek, leading us under the shade of the trees and past fields of wildflowers, we wondered how we had never come this way!
Eventually, we went over a short bridge, crossed the creek and found ourselves out in the open on the slopes of Las Trampas Ridge. We walked a bit farther and saw a marker pointing us in the direction of Las Trampas Peak.
The trail took us past fields of grass, their vibrant green fanning out on either side of us. It was hard to imagine that in another month or so this would all be brown.
As we followed the contours of the hill, the trail gained elevation and soon we were on the ridge. It was possible to see the trail winding its way towards Las Trampas Peak in the distance. After 0.5 miles we reached a fence and saw a path leading up to the peak. At the top we found some cows munching away on leaves.
We retraced our steps but stayed on Las Trampas Ridge Trail, which climbed up to the left. As we cleared the shrubs, our view opened up and we could see, what we guessed, must be the other two peaks. This section of trail was exposed for a few hundred feet before heading back under the cover of trees.
Just before 0.3 miles, there was a bootleg trail on the right that went sharply up the hill. We figured this had to be Vail Peak so followed it, trying to avoid the poison oak. Trees and shrubs covered the top but there were views to be had through the branches.
Back on the main trail, we reached the junction with Corduroy Hills Trail. It descended sharply down a few steps before leveling off onto a small ridge with beautiful views of Las Trampas peak on one side and the hills and valleys on the other. We were in an undiscovered (by us) area of the East Bay, and loved how remote our surroundings felt.
We had fun maneuvering the trail as it became narrower and steeper leading up to a big rock outcropping. From here it was only a few minutes more to Eagle Peak. It had taken us about 2 hours to reach this point and bag all three peaks. We sat on the bench, shared an orange and surveyed Mt. Diablo in front us, the busyness of Highway 680 and the various East Bay cities from Walnut Creek all the way to San Ramon.
Our return trip took us an hour. We used the same path going back because one of the trails that we could have taken to make it a loop was closed due to storm damage. The only difference was we hiked the eastern side of Bollinger Creek Loop Trail (and therefore, complete the loop of the Bollinger Creek Loop Trail) which allowed us to see the yellow and purple wildflowers growing all along the slopes of hills.
Follow our progress bagging the Bay Area’s Nifty Ninety here.
Coda
This was one of our favorite hikes. It offered a nice mix of sun/shade, terrain and elevation. While it’s not a really hard hike, we still felt like we got in our exercise for the day and got to enjoy great views from Eagle Peak. More importantly, we discovered something new in a park that we had visited many, many times before. A good reminder that there is always joy to be found out on the trail.
