Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline is a

regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government. Definition A regional park can be a special park distri ...

, part of the

East Bay Regional Park District The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a special district operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of regional parks which ...

system, located in northwestern

Contra Costa County ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Geography

The park, which is divided into two sections, that is divided in two sections by privately owned property, is located on the southern shoreline of the

Carquinez Strait The Carquinez Strait (; Spanish: ''Estrecho de Carquinez'') 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 strait is lo ...

and eastern

San Pablo Bay San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water ch ...

and in the adjacent hills, within the

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa countie ...

region of the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Total area of the park is .Todd, Gail. "Carquinez Regional Shoreline walk." ''SFGate''. October 24, 2012.
Accessed July 11, 2017 The steep coastal hills rise as much as above the strait."Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline." East Bay Regional Park District.
Accessed July 10, 2017. The western park section extends from

Crockett Crockett may refer to: People and fictional characters *Crockett Gillmore (born 1991), American National Football League player *Crockett Johnson, pen name of David Johnson Liesk (1906-1975), American cartoonist and children's book illustrator *C ...

and

Crockett Hills Regional Park Crockett Hills Regional Park is a regional park in Contra Costa County, California, just south of Crockett. opened to the public in 2006.

eastwards to Port Costa. The larger eastern park section extends from expansive natural open spaces in the Crockett Hills, eastwards to the city of Martinez, the

Martinez Regional Shoreline Radke Martinez Regional Shoreline (RMRS) is a regional park on the shoreline of Carquinez Strait in Martinez, located in northern Contra Costa County, California. Formerly known as the Martinez Regional Shoreline, it was renamed on December 6, 201 ...

park, and the

John Muir National Historic Site The John Muir National Historic Site is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, in Martinez, Contra Costa County, California. It preserves the 14-room Italianate Victorian mansion where the naturalist and writer John Muir lived, as well as a ne ...

. Trails in the Crockett Hills have unobstructed views across Carquinez Strait to

Suisun Bay Suisun Bay ( ; Wintun for "where the west wind blows") is a shallow tidal estuary (a northeastern extension of the San Francisco Bay) in Northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River, forming the ent ...

, Benicia, and southern

Solano County Solano County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 453,491. The county seat is Fairfield. Solano County comprises the Vallejo–Fairfield, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is ...

Trails

The - long

San Francisco Bay Trail The San Francisco Bay Trail is a bicycle and pedestrian trail that when finished will allow continuous travel around the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. As of 2020, of the trail have been completed. When finished, the trail will be over of p ...

passes through the park. Part of the

Bay Area Ridge Trail The Bay Area Ridge Trail (Ridge Trail) is a planned multi-use trail along the hill and mountain ridgelines ringing the San Francisco Bay Area, in Northern California. Currently, have been established. When complete, the trail will connect ov ...

also passes through the Crockett Hills area of the park. The state built the -long Carquinez Scenic Drive along the southern shore of the strait in 1912. Decades later, it turned the road over to Contra Costa County. Major storms and landslides in 1983 caused huge gaps in the road, forcing its permanent closure to auto traffic. Instead, the county decided to convert the abandoned road into a trail for exclusive use by hikers, joggers, cyclists and equestrians. EBRPD negotiated with Contra Costa County for nearly a decade before it reached agreement in December 2012 on an easement that allowed converting the idle roadway to a trail. Even so, it still cost about $5.5 million to install piers, drains and walls to ensure stability of the new trail. It took several years to obtain sufficient funds for this project, The new trail, which did not open for public use until the Fall of 2014, was named for former U.S. Representative George Miller (D-Martinez), who was instrumental in obtaining $3.5 million in Federal funds for the project."Scenic trail along Carquinez Strait to re-open on route of ruined century-old road." ''Bay Area News Group''. Published October 31, 2014. Updated August 15, 2016.
Accessed July 11, 2017.

Notes

References

External links

Official Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline website
— ''with images''.

— ''with images''. {{coord, 38.049365, N, 122.193023, W, region:US-CA_type:landmark_dim:4km, display=title East Bay Regional Park District Parks in Contra Costa County, California Carquinez Strait Martinez, California San Francisco Bay Trail Bay Area Ridge Trail

Geography

Trails

Notes

See also

References

External links