For views of the Marin hills and Mt. Tam, hike this loop along open hills and a shaded fire road.
Location: Loma Alta Open Space Preserve
Length: 5.3 miles
Difficulty: moderate
Shade: open for the first half, partially shaded for the second
Parking: street parking at the end of Oak Manor
Public Transportation: none
WC: none
Dogs: allowed on all trails
Hiked: Jun 2020
Our Trail Route
From the trailhead at the top of the hill on Oak Manor, we walked half a mile to the loop—first uphill then downhill. It was a rough start. At the water tanks, we started the loop by going right onto Smith Ridge Fire Road. That section was open, so we wanted to do it before it got too hot later in the day, which turned out to be a great decision. There was a pretty steady climb for a while, but the views were quite good. After 1.42 miles, we hit the marker for Sunrise Fire Road—we turned left to go downhill for 0.73 miles. Then we turned left again onto Old White Hill Grade.
We saw a few trails off this fire road, but we stayed on it pretty much to the end. We passed some large groups of bikers. And we encountered a snake in the middle of the path. He didn’t seem to mind us, but we stepped off the path to pass him in a wide circle to be safe. We meant to stay on the fire road until we saw the water tanks again, but we somehow turned onto Fox Hollow Trail. So we ended up walking a bit further than we needed to. Still, Fox Hollow was shaded and quiet. When we made it back to the fire road, we finished the loop and returned to the car via Oak Manor Fire Road. In the heat, it was a difficult climb up on that section, and we nearly cheered when we saw the car.
Notes
This was a tough hike in the summer heat. And because we parked at the Oak Manor trailhead, we had to do some climbing at the end. I’d recommend parking off Sir Francis Drake Blvd. near Hal Brown Bridge—you’d save about 0.7 miles of trail in the open sun. There are also trailheads on Glen Drive and Baywood Canyon Road—both streets are off Sir Francis Drake Blvd.
Gallery
