Drive north out of Livermore on Laughlin Road until the pavement ends, and you reach the staging area for one of the East Bay's most storied hills. The East Bay Regional Park District calls Brushy Peak a 1,702-foot landmark where the Bay Area, the California Delta and the Central Valley meet; Wikipedia lists its elevation as 1,686 feet. Its other names include Brushy Knob and Las Cuevas, "the caves."

What you can do

The 1,979-acre Brushy Peak Regional Preserve has trails for hiking, biking, running and dog walking. Dogs must be leashed at all times to protect the area's fragile natural resources, and there is no drinking water, so bring your own. Parking is free. The Laughlin Ranch staging area has wheelchair-accessible parking and restrooms.

The summit and the northern part of the preserve are off limits except on guided tours run by the Livermore Area Recreation and Park District.

Hours change through the year. From Sept. 6 to Nov. 5, the preserve is open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. From Nov. 6 through the end of January, it closes at 5 p.m.

Wildlife

Ground squirrels are the most obvious residents. Their burrows also house burrowing owls, badgers and the San Joaquin kit fox. Red-tailed hawks, ferruginous hawks and golden eagles hunt the squirrels and cottontails. Spring-fed ponds that ranchers dug long ago now support federally protected California red-legged frogs and California tiger salamanders. The sagebrush on the peak's south-facing slopes is the kind of habitat that typically supports the threatened Alameda whipsnake.

A trading crossroads

The park district says generations of Native Californians have held the peak sacred. It sat at the center of ancient trade routes linking Bay Area Ohlones, Bay Miwoks and Northern Valley Yokuts. The Ssaoam, an Ohlone tribelet, likely lived closest to the peak and hosted trade feasts there. From 1806 to 1836 they lived at Mission San Jose.

During the Gold Rush, the rock outcrops became a bandits' hideout and, the district says, a favorite retreat of the legendary bandit Joaquin Murietta. Between the 1890s and World War I, local ranch families held picnics and dances among the rocks, and in 1900 and 1901 San Francisco's Bohemian Club held outings on the peak. Joseph Laughlin built farm buildings on the land in the 1920s and 1930s, and their remains are probably the ruins visible today. The Livermore park district bought the first 507 acres in 1994. In 1997 it agreed to work with the regional park district to expand and protect the preserve.