The San Francisco Bay is the sloshing heart of the Bay Area, and we are lucky that two ambitious terrestrial trails circumambulate the Bay and dozens of nonmotorized boat launches exist for paddling its blue-green waters.
Here’s a trio of stories on each, with sidebars on trailheads we recommend.
Jump to Bay Trail section or Bay Area Ridge Trail section
I. The Bay Water Trail: Get Your Paddle On
The sun finally broke through the morning clouds at Crane Cove beach in San Francisco. My shoulders were sore and my thighs fatigued. I dipped the blade of the paddle and swept it back over the water to turn the nose of my board to face out toward the Bay Bridge span and Port of Oakland. I laid the paddle across my lap, noticing the gentle sway of the board as the wind picked up. Feeling less intimidated, I took a moment to grasp the view of the San Francisco Bay expanse in front of me. But I’m getting ahead of myself . . .
This is an excerpt from a longer story about the San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail that appeared in Bay Nature‘s Fall 2021 issue.
How I got to this moment of hard-earned wonder was through the San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail—a growing network of launch sites, or “trailheads,” for nonmotorized small boats. It is the public resource that will get you out on the Bay, because let’s face it: You’ve driven over it, maybe ferried across it, or shared a meal next to it. But have you dipped your toe in all the San Francisco Bay has to offer? Roughly 53 trailhead sites sprinkle the shoreline of the nine counties surrounding the Bay to encourage people to explore and enjoy over 500 square miles of navigable scenic and environmental splendor on kayaks, kiteboards, dragon boats, and stand-up paddleboards.
The trailheads span the gamut of habitats along the shore in the Bay and beyond. Launch into the Napa River at the semirural Cuttings Wharf trailhead. Explore marsh habitat and sloughs winding upriver, surrounded by hills, to the riverfront development along downtown Napa’s Main Street Boat Dock. From the sandy Encinal Beach trailhead in Alameda, glimpse harbor seals and California brown pelicans with the San Francisco skyline rising up next to you and the colossal USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum aircraft carrier in your sights. Paddle into Contra Costa’s Point Pinole Regional Shoreline with camping gear to stay overnight at the campground and bring binoculars to watch the shorebirds.
The vision for the water trail was born with the passage of the San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail Act by the state legislature in 2005. The Water Trail Program is funded by grants from and through the Coastal Conservancy, which implements the program with the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), and state parks. Launch sites are managed and maintained by regional shoreline entities.
The San Francisco Bay Water Trail’s interactive website provides a map of the trailheads and offers detailed information about each, organized by county. Resources on the website provide links to independent groups and clubs offering local paddling opportunities. A trip planner provides weather and paddling conditions, such as tides and currents, and water safety tips. “A core component is helping people to understand that the Bay is big and dynamic,” said Ben Botkin, water-trail planner with ABAG/MTC at the time. “What can be a safe and fun paddle for a novice paddler on one day can be different within a few hours as winds pick up, or tides change.”—Tamara Sherman
Explore
New Places to Paddle the Bay Water Trail
Pacheco Marsh, Alameda County
2501 Waterfront Road, Martinez, John Muir Land Trust. Paddle through a 232-acre restored marsh on Suisun Bay.
Sausalito Community Boating Center at Cass Gidley Marina, Marin County
1620 Bridgeway, Sausalito. Near downtown Sausalito, SCBC offers affordable rowing, sailing, and marine education programs and a low float ADA dock in Richardson Bay.
Point Isabel Regional Shoreline, Alameda County
2701 Isabel St., Richmond, East Bay Regional Park District. Paddlers can access the water at a pocket beach in the southern portion of Point Isabel, after a short scramble down a rock revetment.
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II. The Bay Trail: A 500-Mile Loop
Thirty years after the project officially began, the idea for the San Francisco Bay Trail seems both delightfully obvious and considerably difficult. To link Bay Area communities across nine counties and 47 cities with one multiuse, 500-mile trail is an ambitious dream. And as with other major social initiatives, fully building out the Bay Trail is an ongoing endeavor, decades into its existence.
This is an excerpt from a longer story about the Bay Trail that appeared in Bay Nature‘s Summer 2019 issue.
Even before the vision of a loop trail could be realized, Californians had to get excited about spending time at the shoreline. That required some serious cleanup. In the 1950s, nearly 85 percent of San Francisco Bay wetlands had been destroyed. Residents and corporations dumped waste along the shore or right into the water. Business development had taken over and transformed waterfront areas that had previously been valuable estuarine ecosystems. When the nonprofit now known as Save the Bay was formed in the 1960s, its mission was radical. And over the next few decades, as restoration of the Bay began, the thought of reaching—and spending time on—the shoreline created a new desire for one continuous trail.
What began as a concept bandied about over lunch more than 30 years ago by then–state senator Bill Lockyer of the East Bay has now become part of Bay Area life. Passed into law in 1987, California SB 100 directed the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) to establish a “recreation corridor” that was codified as the San Francisco Bay Trail Plan two years later. The plan also created the San Francisco Bay Trail Project, a group within ABAG that galvanizes and coordinates the many public and private stakeholders that have a role in continuing to build the Bay Trail loop. Crucial among them are three regionwide Bay Area agencies—the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, California State Coastal Conservancy, and San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission—that fund the Bay Trail and ensure the project’s implementation.
More than 350 miles of paths so far, the Bay Trail will ultimately connect to more than 130 parks and open spaces. Roughly 230 miles of paved path complement another 125 miles of natural-surface trails designed to be suitable for a wide range of uses without harming Bay wildlife and habitat. Other “spur” trail segments at times divert from the shoreline into additional scenic stretches. “The Bay Trail offers people of all income levels and backgrounds the opportunity to get close to the Bay,” notes Rick Parmer, a longtime Bay Trail board member. Indeed, the way that the interconnected, still-in-progress Bay Trail network meanders around the shoreline invites us all to do the same. —Brittany Shoot
EXPLORE
Wander New Stretches of the Bay Trail
Vallejo Bay Trail, Napa County
3.3 miles, ~0 ft elevation gain. Vallejo Ferry Terminal at 289 Mare Island Way, Vallejo Public Works Department. Walk or roll along the paved trail in Vallejo, which adds to the Napa Valley Vine and Bay Trail, a combined 47-mile route to Calistoga.
Terry Francois Boulevard, San Francisco
0.3 miles, ~0 ft elevation gain. 1 China Basin Park, Port of San Francisco. The Bay Trail passes this new 5-acre waterfront park, boasting views of Oracle Park and the Bay Bridge.
SMART path at McInnis Parkway, Marin County
1 miles, 2 ft elevation gain. This small but mighty Bay Trail segment, across from 155 McInnis Pkwy, runs along the Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit train tracks, connecting the Marin County Civic Center station to McInnis Park and the San Rafael Airport.
III. The Ridge Trail: Resplendent With Vistas
Huffing and puffing up the steep slope of Coyote Ridge, I admire the California poppies, goldfields, and lupines bursting from the serpentine grassland dotted with boulders. This trail was dedicated as a section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail within the Máyyan ‘Ooyákma Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve in Santa Clara County in 2023. It offers sweeping views of Coyote Valley and the Santa Cruz Mountains beyond, as well as an opportunity to glimpse the federally threatened Bay checkerspot butterfly flitting among the flowers. From city vistas to remote redwood groves to rolling foothills and grasslands, the Bay Area Ridge Trail unites recreational trails along the ridges surrounding San Francisco Bay, with plans afoot to connect 145 parks from as far north as Calistoga to as far south as Gilroy.
“It’s creating a connected through line that will connect all those pearls of parks throughout the whole Bay Area,” says Janet McBride, executive director for the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council, the nonprofit that plans, fundraises for, and coordinates trail routes.
The Ridge Trail offers 400 miles of hiking, most of which is also accessible to bikers and equestrians. Another 150 miles are in the works, with sections available to enjoy on a short half-day trek or epic multiday adventures. The long-term vision for the trail is to create a system of overnight facilities, so that visitors will be able to circumnavigate the Bay along the full 550-mile route and camp out along the way.
In 2025, 25 miles split over three newly dedicated sections of trail are expected to open to the public, including 1.6 miles of the Coyote Creek Trail in San Jose, the 2.6-mile Coyote Canyon in Morgan Hill, and a 6.3-mile extension of the Southern Skyline Ridge Trail near Redwood City, as well as the incorporation of an existing 14 miles from Rancho Cañada del Oro to Calero County Park in Morgan Hill.
Since the first trail dedication in 1989, Ridge Trail volunteers and staff have coordinated with the management of existing parks and open spaces to incorporate existing trails as well as creating new routes and infrastructure. A majority of funding for the Ridge Trail comes from individual donors, as well as the California State Coastal Conservancy. Completing the last 150 miles involves overcoming challenges such as building water and highway crossings and navigating private property.
“As we go forward, the more and more difficult gaps remain to close,” says McBride. “It might be 20 years out for the longest, most difficult sections.”
With each new trail section added, the Bay Area Ridge Trail connects the region’s parks, serves as a corridor for wildlife, and creates a link between communities. Completing the full loop is as much about conservation and accessibility as it is about recreation, ensuring that more people can experience the Bay Area’s natural wonders from atop a ridgeline near them. —Guananí Gómez-Van Cortright
Explore
Hike the Ridge Trail’s Latest
Calistoga Ridge and Vine Trails, Napa County
4.2 miles, 123 feet elevation gain, point to point. Bothe–Napa Valley State Park Explore rocky outcroppings, lush vineyards, and evergreen forest.
Doris Klein Ridge Trail, Solano County
2.1 miles, 535 feet elevation gain, point to point. Patwino Worrtla Kodoi Dihi Open Space Park, Solano County Parks. Chaparral, a menagerie of springtime wildflowers, and rolling blue oak grasslands.
Southern Skyline Ridge Trail Extension, San Mateo County
6.3 miles, point to point. Expected to open fall 2025. San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Traverse redwoods between Highways 35 and 92 intersection and Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve.
Update, July 30, 2025: The “new places to go” sections for the Bay Trail and the Ridge Trail were swapped, erroneously; this was corrected. A Ridge Trail photo was also moved to the correct section of the piece.
