Wildcat Canyon Regional Park is a 2429 acres (983 ha) East Bay Regional Parks District park located within the city limits of Richmond

Richmond, California

Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...

 in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. It comprises a portion of its namesake Wildcat Canyon

Wildcat Canyon

Wildcat Canyon is a narrow linear valley just east of the Berkeley Hills in the San Francisco Bay Area, situated in Contra Costa County, California. The canyon is bounded on its east side by the San Pablo Ridge, and is drained by Wildcat Creek which runs northwest to its outlet in San Pablo Bay. ...

.

History

The area was inhabited by Native Americans until 1772 when a group of "Catalonian volunteers" led by Pedro Fagas and Fray Juan Crespi came across the settlement while searching for trade routes north beyond the Carquinez Strait

Carquinez Strait

The Carquinez Strait is a narrow tidal strait in northern California. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay...

. The Spanish settled the general area and by 1840 had parceled the land for missions and cattle raising coming into conflict with the historical communal practices of the Native Americans. Juan Jose and Victor Castro

Víctor Castro

Víctor Ramón Castro was a landowner in an area of Alta California which later became part of Contra Costa County, California.Víctor Castro was the son of Francisco María Castro, a former soldier at the San Francisco Presidio, one-time alcalde of the Pueblo of San José, and grantee of Rancho San...

 were given rights to all vacant land in the area. They kept some valuable lands and gave much of the land over to municipal authorities for water usage. In 1935, the East Bay Regional Parks District acquired the land that formed Tilden Park to the South and continued to acquire land to the north of Tilden until in 1976 it had sufficient land to form Wildcat Canyon Regional Park.

Flora

Wildcat has an abundance of wildlife both flora and fauna. There are Coast Live Oak

Coast Live Oak

Quercus agrifolia, the Coast Live Oak, is an evergreen oak , native to the California Floristic Province. It grows west of the Sierra Nevada from Mendocino County, California, south to northern Baja California in Mexico. It is classified in the red oak section Quercus agrifolia, the Coast Live Oak,...

, California Bay Laurel, Big leaf maple, Madrone, alder

Alder

Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...

, willow

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...

, Dogwood

Dogwood

The genus Cornus is a group of about 30-60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods. Most dogwoods are deciduous trees or shrubs, but a few species are nearly herbaceous perennial subshrubs, and a few of the woody species are evergreen...

, and eucalyptus

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...

 forests. There are humid chaparrals made up of coyote brush, poison oak

Poison oak

Poison oak may refer to* Toxicodendron diversilobum, grows on West Coast of North America* Toxicodendron pubescens, grows in the Eastern United Statesdamnnnnn tissss is terribleee...

, elderberry

Elderberry

Sambucus is a genus of between 5 and 30 species of shrubs or small trees in the moschatel family, Adoxaceae. It was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified due to genetic evidence...

, snowberry, bracken fern, and blackberry

Blackberry

The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by any of several species in the Rubus genus of the Rosaceae family. The fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. The plants typically have biennial canes and perennial roots. Blackberries and...

 brambles.

There are some native grasses but nonnative species like rye, barley, and oat dominante, many kinds of native flowers are present.

Fauna

With regards to animal life there are coyotes, foxes, raccoons, skunks, opossums, deer, California ground squirrels often thought to be gophers in addition to voles present.

Reptilian life includes gopher snakes, king snakes, western racers, garter snakes, rubber boas, ringneck snakes. In the skies red-tailed hawks, American kestrels, sharp shinned hawks, cooper's hawks, crows, and turkey vultures fly and also great horned owls and many songbirds.

Major Trails

Wildcat Creek Trail - Runs along Wildcat Creek from the Alvarado Park staging area in Richmond into Tilden Park's Nature Area. The Wildcat Park section measures 3.5 miles to the park border and continues for 1 mile to the Tilden Nature Area parking lot. The trail is wide and does not involve major elevation changes. The trail's midpoint can be accessed via Rifle Range Road Trail accessed via Rifle Range Road in El Cerrito, California

El Cerrito, California

-Transportation:The city's primary transportation infrastructure consists of the El Cerrito Plaza and El Cerrito del Norte BART stations along with several local bus lines, operated by AC Transit, providing access to the surrounding area and the nearby cities of Albany, Berkeley and Richmond...

.

Nimitz Way - Starting at Tilden Park's Inspiration Point, Nimitz Way (named after Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

Chester Nimitz

Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz, GCB, USN was a five-star admiral in the United States Navy. He held the dual command of Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet , for U.S. naval forces and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas , for U.S...

) is a mostly paved trail that connects to Wildcat Canyon Park after 1.5 miles. The Wildcat section is 2.51 miles long and connects to San Pablo Ridge Trail. Nimitz Way is a popular, relatively easy trail with views of the San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

 to the west and EBMUD’s San Pablo

San Pablo Reservoir

The San Pablo Reservoir is an open cut terminal water storage reservoir owned and operated by the East Bay Municipal Utility District . It is located in the valley of San Pablo Creek, north of Orinda, California and south of El Sobrante and Richmond, east of the Berkeley Hills between the Sobrante...

 & Briones Reservoir

Briones Reservoir

Briones Reservoir is an open cut terminal water storage reservoir owned and operated by the East Bay Municipal Utility District . It is located in the hills northeast of Orinda, California. The earthen dam was completed in 1964...

s and Mt. Diablo.

Belgum Trail - Accessed from Wildcat Creek Trail about 0.5 miles from the Alvarado Park staging area, this trail climbs quickly over a relatively short 0.85 miles to Wildcat Canyon's meadows. The trail provides excellent views of San Francisco Bay.

San Pablo Ridge Trail - Accessed from Belgum Trail or Clark-Boas Trail, which runs from the Clark Road park entrance in Richmond, the San Pable Ridge Trail is a short 1.43 miles but climbs over three peaks. The trail connects at its Southern terminus with Nimitz Way.

Other features

Alavarado Park, a National Historic Place is the northernmost portion of Wildcat Canyon.

The 2 miles (3.2 km) section in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park was a Nike missile base which was decommissioned in the 1970s. Today there are few signs of the missile silos and military housing that used to populate these hills.

Wildcat Canyon Regional Park hosts cattle who graze the hills of the park under a grazing program managed by the East Bay Regional Parks District.

Accessing the Park

The park can be accessed via the following entry points:

• The main entrance and park office is the Alvarado Park area on Park Avenue in Richmond reached from McBride Avenue.
• The Clark Road entrance in the northernmost area of the park is accessed off of San Pablo Dam Road.
• Rifle Range Road in El Cerrito
• Leisure Lane off of San Pablo Dam Road

External links

• Wildcat Canyon Regional Park at the East Bay Regional Parks District website
• Wildcat Regional Park Trail Map
• Wildcat Canyon Regional Park Map - Text Side