There are plenty of things to say about Sunol as a great Bay Area hike with kids, but let me sum it up with this: go in the spring.
Spring, of course, has the lush green hills and wildflowers gone crazy. In fact, usually in April there is a Wildflower Event. (Check the East Bay Regional Parks site for details; COVID-19 times may affect this.)
Summer and fall are going to be hard ones, though. Temperatures rise quickly–it can be in the high 80s even in March. While there are really nice breezes to be had high up on the Canyon View Trail and from the Alameda Creek, my guess is that the breezes dry up along with the creek water come July.
Ticks and bugs are fierce in the summer and I bet the mosquitoes are out of control once the creek starts shriveling. And? Sunol is a hot bed of tarantulas. You read that right. And you know when tarantulas are fully grown and start walking across your path? Late summer and fall. Hey, maybe your family likes tarantulas. Everything is a learning opportunity! My family likes them too–behind a thick pane of glass and no where near our persons. More about that in a minute.
Sunol is fairly easy to get to considering you’re going to have to drive to get to any open space area. And it’s quite lovely. It’s inside the park that you need to make decisions. I shall explain.
Sunol has a plethora of trails and even great camping, but none of it is terribly easy for little ones. The best thing about Sunol for you and your kids is Little Yosemite, a long stretch of boulders and rocks through which pure, clear creek water runs. It’s gorgeous, and it’s an instant hit with kids who enjoy clambering over the rocks and throwing rocks into the water to hear a satisfying kerplunk.
You can park at the trail head and then walk Camp Ohlone Road one mile out to Little Yosemite, but you’re not driving all that way just to walk a mile, are you? No, you want to get a decent walk in. And there’s where the problem arises. There aren’t a ton of short trails except Indian Joe Trail, which is fine, really, when combined with the road to Little Yosemite. And the road is fine, too, as a walk.
Naturally, I didn’t know that.
We started off along the Ohlone Wilderness Trail from the green barn visitor’s center. The visitor’s center, if I may take a moment, is great. There are some live animals to look at such as a gopher snake, king snake (you don’t see those too often), and a rattlensnake. There was also the aforementioned disgusting tarantula — but we would see one on the trail, oh yes we would. There are dried wildflower cards that are superb, and lots of learning resources.
Outside the barn on the day we went, a bunch of cones surrounded one of the picnic benches right outside the door to the visitor’s center.
This made me laugh since the rattlesnake that clearly had been spotted under the table was unlikely to remain there unless the underside of the table was a nest of rattlers, in which case, move the table?
Anyway, you start the trail by crossing the red footbridge and turning right.
Now, all I knew was that the Canyon View Trail led to Little Yosemite, and therefore that’s what we took. This trail is gorgeous and afforded a truly magnificent canyon and hill view. There are spots of hot sun, but plenty of shade to rest in along the way.
But.
It’s mostly uphill and the ascent is quite steep. My four year old complained and whined the whole way and generally made it miserable for everyone. My eight year old, however, did great–he only complained once, but he had no problem with it. So older kids, good; younger kids, stick with the road.
Canyon Trail offered some fantastic scenery. The trail is really the Indian Joe Trail at first, and you go through bucolic meadows and hop over small streams.
There are lovely things to see, like this heinous baby tarantula, which isn’t lovely at all, but which crossed our trail and then stopped, as though to say, “Yeah? You lookin’ at me?” before scurrying off to grow up and mate and have loads of more baby tarantulas…ugh, I don’t even want to think about it. In the fall, these fully-grown fiends migrate and cross all over the place in the East Bay hills. Remember that.
After the trail stops pretending it’s Indian Joe Trail, it gets difficult as it starts going uphill. But pretty! With lots of shade and fun places to explore along the way, which helps with the whining a bit.
THEN, the trail gets truly magnificent! And dangerous. You’re traveling on a small little path cut into the hillside. Channel your inner goat. You can do it.
And don’t forget to enjoy the wildflowers.
Little Yosemite
At last! Your reward for all that hard hiking work — all 1.5 miles of it. Oh, I know. Sounds like a piece of cake, right? It would have been, on a cooler day and without a preschooler who complained heavily. I mean, how often do you find this in the Bay Area? See the water spilling between the rocks in the middle there?
And then you can walk back to the parking areas, using the road. It’s downhill and nice and wide. This shot below was taken shortly before my four year old launched into a full-scale meltdown. I kept saying, “But man, look–it’s a flat road!” but he wasn’t having any of it.
Plenty of opportunity for viewing flora and fauna on this walk.
Animals
We saw:
- Lizard
- Baby tarantula (ugh!)
- Red-tailed hawk
- Lizards
- Turkey vultures
- Numerous butterflies and moths
Information
- Here’s EBRP’s Sunol Wildflower guide in PDF, which they were selling for $7.00 in the shop, but which is free online.
- Here’s EBRP’s tarantula brochure (PDF)
- Trail map (PDF) — Little Yosemite is at the bottom
- Bring lots of water; there is none and you don’t want to be drinking creek water
How to get there
The loop we did is about 3 miles total, a fine length. Keep in mind however that the Canyon View Trail portion is quite steep.
Take 680 past Pleasanton and take the Calaveras Road exit. Look for signs pointing toward Sunol Regional Park, down X Road. Turn left onto Geary Road.
There is a fee to park when someone in the kiosk is present; on the day we went it was $5.00. They charge you extra for dogs, so be aware.
