Wikipedia lists the elevation of El Cerrito as 69 feet, which is the approximate elevation at City Hall. The Plaza is a little lower, the shopping districts on Stockton and Fairmont are a little higher, but most of the business in the city probably occurs at an elevation within 50 feet either way. Not so the trails of El Cerrito. For instance, the vista pictured here, on the Ridge Trail above the Recycling Center, is almost 500 feet higher, but even this doesn’t take in the full elevational range of El Cerrito. We’ve barely risen halfway to the high point in the city, a place no trail will take us since it is on private property. And under a house.

After a long gap, we return to the north of the city for the third and last of Tassajara Park’s associated trails, the aptly named Tassajara Park Trail. We’ve previously showcased the Tassajara to Barrett path, which descend from Barrett to Tassajara Avenue, across from the park, and the Barrett to Alva path, which runs along the western edge of the park. But the Tassajara Park Trail is unique in that it begins in, and passes through, the park itself.

You could be forgiven for not having noticed this week’s trail. One end is on a sharp curve on the hillside’s busiest street; the other is on a steep and narrow section of a one-block-long residential road. On one side you might speed past, on the other you’re probably watching the crest of the hill for the possibility of oncoming traffic. Either way the narrow entrances to this path and stairway are easy to miss. But the Tamalpais to Arlington Path is a useful shortcut for those in the area on foot.

The King Court entrance to the Hillside Natural Area probably ranks second only to Schmidt Lane as the most used trailhead in the park. And with Schmidt it spans the entire range of options for entering the park from the south. For although there is park to the south of these entrances, no passable trail connects the southern border of the park to the rest of the Natural Area. The Duke and Earl Trail is an attempt to remedy this situation.

When building in the hills, the rigid grid lines that characterize street layout in the flat lands are abandoned for the gentle curve of the topographic contour. This often makes for a more interesting walk, since you are forever rounding a corner to a new vista. But finding a minimal route between two points can become an exercise in complex geographic calculus. Take for instance the problem for a resident of Francisco Street on the northern edge of El Cerrito. In order to visit a neighbor on Mira Vista, little more than 150 ft west, you might have to walk twice that distance east, than south to Barrett before walking almost 500 feet west to Mira Vista. And there is still the walk north on Mira Vista to your destination. That 150 feet west has become 1400 feet and you’ve walked in every cardinal direction. Good for your heart, it not for your schedule. But wait, what is that between those two houses? That narrow gap? Why it is the minimizing function of our problem, known to us as this week’s trail, the Francisco to Tulare Path.

Snowdon Way is the last block of Snowdon Avenue as you head east towards the hills. Coming to Ganges, you could be forgiven for mistaking the way ahead of you for a private driveway. But, in fact, it is the northern most entrance to the Hillside Natural Area (HNA) and the beginning of a network of trails that can take you all the way across the HNA and eventually to Moeser Lane.

​After taking off last week we are back with a two-fer. The trails featured this week couldn’t be more different. Harding Path is on the south edge of town, in a park and quite flat. Gatto Trail is northern, in a residential neighborhood, and very steep. The characteristic they share is that neither is usable. And even there they differ in the reasons for their impassibility.

​We continue our exploration of trails on the northern edge of the southern part of the Hillside Natural Area. This week we feature what was until recently the only direct route to Motorcycle Hill and the northern part of the Hillside Natural Area, the Douglas Trail. Last week we followed a trail that dead-ended at Wildwood Creek. This time we cross that creek and arrive in a tiny little pocket neighborhood just off of the steepest part of Potrero.

This is one of the lesser known trails in the El Cerrito Hillside Natural Area. The more familiar, southern portion of the Hillside Natural Area is bordered on the north by the main branch of Wildwood Creek, which flows in an open culvert from an origin southwest of Madera School until it goes underground between Gladys Avenue and Navellier at the base of the hills. On its way down it passes four trails. It begins just west of the north end of the Ridge Trail before it passes into the Madera Open Space. A wooden plank-way crosses it where the Douglas Trail (#27) exits the Hillside Natural Area at Douglas Drive, and it runs along the last stretch of the Navellier Trail (#29) as  it reaches the bottom of the Hill and turns south towards the Hillside Church. And in between Douglas and Navellier trails it runs along its own eponymous trail, our subject for this week.

Locate along Moeser Lane across from both the Contra Costa Civic Theater and the El Cerrito Community Center / Swimming Complex, Cerrito Vista Park is an integral part of the city’s Cultural / Recreational center. In fact it might have been called Central Park, if that name hadn’t already been used. (El Cerrito’s Central Park is located, very fittingly, on Central Avenue, and very much less fittingly, mostly in Richmond.) Besides tennis courts, a children’s play area and the premiere baseball field in the city, Cerrito Vista Park hosts the annual 4th of July / World One Music Festival.