Lafayette
Ridge Trailhead, In brief:
4.5 mile out and back hikes through the southern part of Briones.
Getting there:
From CA 24 in Contra Costa County, exit Pleasant Hill Road (exit 14). Drive
north on Pleasant Hill Road about 1 mile to the second traffic light (Springhill
Road), make a u-turn, then drive south on Pleasant Hill Road and take the first
right into the parking lot.
Trailhead details:
Large parking lot. No toilet facilities. No admission or parking fees. Maps
available at the information signboard. There is no direct public transportation
to the park. County Connection bus #206 has limited service along Pleasant Hill
Road, within walking distance to the trailhead.
Gas, food, and lodging:
Gas, stores, and restaurants in surrounding Lafayette neighborhoods. No camping.
Distance, category, and difficulty:
This 4.5 mile out and back hike is moderately easy, with about 900 feet
in elevation change. Trailhead elevation is about 400 feet. The featured hike
climbs to about 1300 feet. There are several steep sections.
Rules:
Most trails are multi-use. A few are open to equestrians and hikers only, and
one trail is designated hiking only. Dogs are permitted. Park is open from 8
a.m. to 10 p.m.
The Official Story:
EBRPD's Briones
page
EBRPD's
Briones brochure (pdf)
Park headquarters 510-562-PARK
Map Choices:
• Use AAA's San Francisco Bay Region map to get to the park
• Map
from EBRPD (download the pdf).
• A Rambler's Guide to the Trails of the East Bay Hills, Northern Section,
published by The Olmsted & Bros. Map Co. (order
this map from Amazon.com)
• Afoot and Afield: San Francisco Bay Area, by David Weintraub (order
this book from Amazon.com) has a great map and descriptions of a Briones
hike.
• East Bay Out, by Malcolm Margolin, has an incomplete map and good
park descriptions (order
this book from Amazon.com).
• East Bay Trails, by David Weintraub, has several small maps and
trail descriptions (order
this book from Amazon.com).
Briones Regional Park features four major trailheads 
with
many loop possibilities. Abundant loops everywhere, that is, except
from this trailhead, where you hike about 1.75 miles and climb over 600 feet
in elevation before you reach a major junction. The Lafayette Ridge Trailhead
is convenient, less than a mile north of Highway 24, but after hiking the Lafayette
Ridge Trail you may consider the proximity a mixed blessing, as traffic noises
drift up the ridge top. The Reliez Valley Trailhead, a few miles north
of the Lafayette Ridge Trailhead, has a small lot, and the first 1.5 miles of
the trail edge between housing developments (with lots of cows along, and sometimes
on the trails). The three other trailheads, Bear
Creek, Alahambra Valley, and Briones Ridge Road, collect entrance fees,
but deliver you to the heart of the park immediately, and offer expanded amenities.
Unless you have a profound dislike of cows, there's a lot to love at Briones,
so you might explore the trailheads and see which one(s) you like best.
For this featured hike, 
enter
the park from the parking lot, and take the right trail uphill a few yards.
Go through the gate and then follow the broad fire road uphill. A
leaning sign post is easy to miss at the first junction. Go to the left
on the Lafayette Ridge Trail. A gradual climb through grassland takes
you around a farm in the crease of the hills. The trail can be very muddy
after rain, even before the cows muck it up. At the next unsigned junction,
turn left and continue to walk uphill. An old, abandoned ramshackle
farm building comes into view on the left side of the trail. On a hike
in November along here I saw a flock of tiny yellow birds flying from tree to
hillside and back again, over and over. They were so small that each could sit
on a blade of dry grass without bending it. After the trail passes the building,
it reaches a flat, then turns uphill again. There are plenty of animal
paths near here, so when in
doubt about the trail, just keep climbing on the wide road. Some oaks creep
close to the trail on the north side of the trail. A small path (the Briones
to Las Trampas Trail) breaks off and heads south. Continue uphill on the
Lafayette Ridge Trail. Views of Mount Diablo are outstanding the entire
hike, and as you climb higher you have great perspectives in all directions:
Las Trampas to the south, Berkeley hills to the west, Suisun Bay to the north.
After about a mile, go through
a gate and continue straight at an (under)signed junction. The trail
dips down for a few yards, then turns away from a locked gate marking the park's
boundary; turn to the north on a multi-use singletrack trail. You
may notice that on the "share the trails" sign at the start of this section
the words hikers and equestrians have been scratched in an attempt to obliterate
them, leaving the word bicyclists intact. Everyone's a critic of park management,
apparently. The short portion of trail skirts a large lovely house, then
broadens again at a damp seep, and continues uphill.
It then delivers you to a very poorly signed junction under an oak tree. Basically
it's a 4 way junction. The trail to the east (right) goes to the road,
then ends, and the trail to the left, which is signed, crests at a shady hill,
then drops down and ends at a construction site. You want to go straight
(a quick right and then left), but from the junction you can barely see
that the trail goes that way, and it's unmarked. The photo of this junction
doesn't help much; look to the water tank, then down, and you'll see it.
Continuing on the Lafayette Ridge
Trail, this next section of the park, away from the houses, is the nicest
stretch of this hike. At about 1.6 mile, a whisper of a path through the
grass marks the start of the Springhill Trail. I've never been on this
trail, 
so
I can't vouch for it. If it wasn't signed I certainly would have missed
it; it resembles a deer path more than a trail. Springhill Trail descends into
a canyon to the north, then connects with the Buckeye Ranch Trail, which climbs
back up to the Lafayette Ridge Trail. This option would add about 1.5 miles,
and significant elevation change, to your hike.
Continue on the Lafayette Ridge
Trail, and look for deer, coyote, and bobcat prints in the soft mud after
a rainstorm. The Lafayette BART station is visible to the south, and all
this climbing has not reduced the traffic sounds from Highway 24 much. As
the trail rises and climbs repeatedly like the tracks of a roller coaster, views
of the trails to the north get even better. Although this trail is not part
of the Bay Area Ridge Trail system, I find it the archetypal ridge trail, hugging
the contours of the crest, with views unobstructed by trees. A few maples cling
to the hillside of the north slope among the many oaks, beneath the ridge line.
Yellow star thistle grows down the middle of the trail in sections. When muddy,
the hills can be a challenge to ascend and descend, as your feet slide in every
direction. You can turn around wherever you please, but the logical spot
is at about 2.25 miles, at the end of the Lafayette Ridge Trail. I
love the view to the north from here, and admire the Briones Crest Trail, no
wider than the ridge at sections. It makes me think of walking on the edge
of a knife. At this unmarked junction, Russell Peak Trail heads to the
left, and Briones Crest to the right. From here you could also extend your hike
by making a loop out of the Russell Peak Trail and Mariposa Trail, for an additional
2.6 miles. For this featured hike, retrace your steps from this junction back
to the trailhead.
Total distance: about 4.5 miles
Last hiked: Monday, November 8, 1999
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