Leona Heights Park 6-14-19

York Trail

Some 40 years ago, when I was working on my book, East Bay Trails, I managed to overlook Leona Heights Park, a small Oakland city park below the Merritt College campus. I was aware of its existence, but I guess it appeared to be too small to bother with. A few years ago, I checked out Leona Canyon Regional  Park, and realized that Leona Heights was a separate park on the other side of the hill. On a nice cool Friday, Maureen was away and I was taking care of feeding our horses at the Anthony Chabot Equestrian Center. When I finished, I decided that it would be a good time for a short hike, and Leona Heights Park was nearby.

I exited highway 13 at Redwood Road, turned right onto Mountain Blvd., and after a short distance found a sign for the York Trail  I parked next to a couple of other cars on the side of the road. The trail entered a steep, narrow canyon with a nice little creek cascading over rocks in shady redwood forest. There were several footbridges crossing from one side to the other. As I continued, the trail became steeper and rougher. In many places it was barely wide enough for my feet with a near vertical drop off on the side. Other places bordered on class 3 climbing. So it is not exactly an easy trail, but worth the effort because of its beauty.

After a mile or so, the trail heads steeply up the right bank, and intersects with the McDonell Trail, a much wider and easier trail. A guy with six dogs was coming down it, and he told me that it would lead me back down to Mountain Blvd. The trail appears to be a popular one for dog walkers, and I encountered many more dogs. In the past, that would have been a major concern for me because I usually had my dog, Darby with me. He was fearful of strange dogs approaching him, and I always worried about fights, and I had to break up a few of them. Now that he is gone, I don't have to worry, but it always reminds me of how much I miss him.

View from McDonell Trail

Now out of the canyon, lots of good views open up of Oakland, the bay, and San Francisco. The trail loops back and forth in large switchbacks until it meets paved road, McDonell Ave. This one-lane road continues down through hillside homes to Mountain Blvd. A right turn and a quarter-mile walk took me back to my car.

Near the place where the trail meets the paved road is the site of the Leona Heights Sulfur Mine. I couldn't see much there, and I read that a clean-up project was started there several years ago. The mine was active from the 1890s until the 1930s, and involved tunnels into the hillside.

Another interesting feature of this park is that it contains the only old-growth redwood tree in the entire East Bay. The tree is named "Old Survivor", and it is on the steep hillside between the York Trail and the McDonell Trail. It is off the trail in dense forest, which is probably why I missed it.

This beautiful hike was a lot of fun, but don't be fooled by its short distance. It was a pretty strenuous workout because of the steepness and roughness of the trail. At least plenty strenuous for my 74-year-old body.

2.2 miles, 400 ft. climb

Leona Canyon 7-13-14

Leona Trail

Sunday afternoon seemed like a good time to go out for a little hike. I thought that it would be nice to try someplace new, at least new to me, but I didn't want to drive far, so I came up with Leona Canyon. Leona Canyon Regional Open Space Preserve is a relatively small park tucked into the hills of East Oakland between 580 and Skyline Blvd., just south of the Merritt College campus. I left Darby at home to avoid any problems with off-leash dogs. I usually don't take him out on trails on weekends, and I had heard that this park was popular with dog walkers.

The map showed a trailhead just off Keller Ave., so I drove up that street looking for it. I went all the way from 580 up to Skyline without seeing any sign of a trailhead. After a closer inspection of the map, I saw that it is just off Campus Drive on Canyon Oaks Drive. It looks like it is just a parking lot for a group of condominiums, but beyond that is parking for the trail. I started up the Leona Trail, gently climbing on a shady trail beside a small creek. There was still a trickle of water, which was nice since so many east bay creeks are bone dry in this drought year. I had looked at the map for possibilities for making a loop, but the only ones I came up with involved a lot of walking on city streets, so I just continued on up the canyon past two trails branching left and right. At the top, I found myself in one of the back parking lots of Merritt College, and I turned around and headed back down. I had seen on the map that the two side trails looked pretty steep, but I wanted to check one of them out anyway. I started off up the Artemesia Trail, and as I expected it was quite steep and getting steeper. I soon decided that it wasn't worth the work just to satisfy my curiosity, and turned around. So Leona Canyon was a nice little hike, but nothing too special. A good place for a walk for people who live nearby, but probably not a place that I'll keep coming back to.

Back at the car, I wanted to drive up to Skyline and take another look at the Oakland City Stables that I had hiked through several months ago. I found the entrance road with a gate across it and a "no parking" sign, so I gave up on that idea. I was hoping to take some pictures of the old spanish-style building that I had seen before. Just this morning, I read in the paper that the city had made a deal with a group that was going to fix up and re-open the facility. That sounds like good news and maybe I'll go by and take another look at it some day.

3.1 miles, 500 ft. climb