Today I headed over to the BEAST (East Bay) and took my sunscreen. See, there’s a lot of cool parks over there but they are a bit lacking in the shade. Coyote Hills Regional Park is only a half hour from my house, across the Dumbarton Bridge. Pretty easy to get to, and since it’s a pretty well known park there are lots of signs.

The sky was so so beautiful today. The park is built on the marshlands right on the bay. It’s a protected preserve and has lots of wildlife. It also has lots of people. This place was packed. In usual style I didn’t find the official trailhead I was going to take until I was leaving the park. Go me! However, I did have a nice hike. I started on the Bay View Trail which is all paved.

I turned on to the Red Hill Trail but I didn’t want to cut my hike too short (since I missed the whole first half) so I backed out before the summit and took the Bay Trail the long way around. It was busy but so pretty and actually the bay gave a great breeze so it wasn’t overwhelmingly hot. I saw over by where the trails  I think I was supposed to take there were some wild cows grazing. Kind of good luck that I avoided them. Those bastards already ruined one of my hikes in Fremont.

Dear Shannon, don’t eat dairy (aka, pizza) before a hike. Because you will be more cranky than usual and your stomach will hurt a lot. Lesson learned? Probably not but hey, I didn’t end up laying on the ground pleading for death, just an upset stomach that I deserved. The easy trail was a blessing honestly.

I ended up taking the Muskrat Trail on the way back to the car. It was right above the parking lot pretty much and gave some pretty views. I’m glad there were steps on the way down, since it was a bit slidy and I’m not all that amazing downhill so the steps helped quite a bit.

All in all, a great hike. Lots of people (and bikes) but they were all pretty polite. Parking was $5.00 or if you wanted to walk a mile or so you can find free parking. There’s a visitors center, a butterfly garden, and lots of picnic areas. I’m kind of bummed I didn’t get to the trails I planned but it was still a nice day.