We found ourselves back in the East Bay, this time to explore the Sunol Regional Wilderness Preserve. It’s located next to Mission Peak Regional Preserve which is where we were last weekend to hike Mission and Monument Peaks. The three adjacent parks—Mission Peak Preserve, Sunol and Ohlone – encompass almost 20,000 acres of the Bay Area’s most stunning topography.
When we used to live in Danville, we often took Calaveras Road, the boundary between Mission Peak Preserve and Sunol Regional Wilderness, as a way to bypass the morning traffic on Highway 680 heading south. Yet for all the times we made that scenic drive we never ventured into the park beside it.
That changed this weekend with our completion of the three Nifty Ninety peaks that took us to three different areas of the wilderness preserve.
After getting a late start leaving San Francisco, we took 580, made a quick stop at Pampas Cafe in Castro Valley for delicious empanadas to bring on the trail, before continuing to the park entrance on Geary Road.
Since we needed to get a permit in order to park along Welch Creek Road, we decided to hike to Flag Hill first. After paying the $4 entrance fee and getting our parking permit for Welch Road, we parked in the lot just past the Visitor Center. After completing the hike to Flag Hill, we drove out the park and then re-entered on Welch Creek Road. We parked at the 1.6 mile marker and did our hike to Maguire Peak. From there we continued our drive to the 2.7 mile marker, not far from the park boundary, and parked there to do our final hike to Vista Grande.
From the time we started our first hike to when we finished our last one, including driving time in between hikes and stopping to eat and refill water, it had taken us a little less than 7 hours. In total we hiked about 10 miles with with lots of elevation change. Definitely feasible to tackle all three Nifty Ninety peaks in one day. I’m only hoping we can keep up this pace!
To read more about our hike to each of Sunol Wilderness’ Nifty Ninety peaks, click on a peak below:
- #37 Flag Hill, 1360′
- #38 Maguire Peak, 1,688′
- #39 Vista Grande, 1,840′
Follow our progress bagging the Bay Area’s Nifty Ninety here.