Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve is one of the smallest parks in the East Bay system: 208 acres by the park district's count (Wikipedia says 205). It is also one of the steepest. The preserve covers two parcels on either side of upper Claremont Avenue, behind the historic Claremont Hotel, with Panoramic Ridge rising to the north and Gwin Canyon to the south.

The Stonewall-Panoramic Trail

The main route is the Stonewall-Panoramic Trail off Stonewall Road. The park district says the first 0.75-mile climb to the ridgetop is steep. At the top are panoramic views of Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. Wikipedia puts the full trail at 1.6 miles with about 700 feet of climbing, and says that on clear days, especially in winter, you can sometimes see the Farallon Islands, about 44 miles away. The trail then follows the ridge along the University of California boundary and joins the trail system of the university's Ecological Study Area.

The other trail, the Gwin Canyon Trail, is a single-track hiking path south of Claremont Avenue. It starts at the north end of Norfolk Road and ends 0.6 miles down, just above Claremont Creek.

Getting there

The preserve has no street address, and the park district lists no parking at the Stonewall-Panoramic trailhead. Wikipedia notes there is very little public parking nearby. It suggests taking transit to the UC Berkeley campus and walking up. The preserve is open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.

A canyon with a long history as a route

The park district says the Huchiun Ohlone used the canyon as a path to the valleys to the east. In 1858, a transcontinental telegraph line was strung through the canyon. It also became the main route for horses and wagons between Oakland and Contra Costa County, and in the early 1860s Pony Express riders carried mail along it. Traffic dropped off after the Kennedy Tunnel, which came before the Caldecott Tunnel, opened in 1903. Wikipedia notes that the canyon was earlier called Harwood's Canyon and then Telegraph Canyon. A developer of the nearby Claremont district later renamed it.

The preserve itself began with neighborhood activism in the 1970s. In 1978 the park district bought 80 acres of surplus state land east of what was then the California School for the Deaf and Blind, now UC Berkeley's Clark Kerr Campus. Later it bought a 64-acre parcel that covers most of Gwin Canyon.

Fire country

Claremont Creek, also called Harwood Creek, flows 1.5 miles through the canyon and is one of the three main tributaries of Temescal Creek. Black-tailed deer, coyotes, gray foxes and red-tailed hawks are common. The district says four major wildfires have burned through the canyon in the past century, including the 1991 Oakland Hills fire. Current fire-prevention work focuses on roadside fuel breaks and removing non-native plants.

Next ridge over: Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.