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Berkeley packs a lot of action into 18 square miles. To the west is the San Francisco Bay, to the east are the hills, and in between, there is UC Berkeley. The hikes in this chapter explore the best that this city has to offer.

Tilden Regional Park’s Seaview and Big Springs Loop is a pleasant, moderate loop with San Francisco views and a small stone labyrinth. And Tilden Nature Area’s Wildcat Peak, a true highlight, offers my favorite panoramic view featured in this book. Next, there are two hikes around Berkeley’s campus. First, there’s the short but steep Charter Hill and the Big C hike, which takes you to a huge letter C (for “Cal”) and gives you great views of Berkeley and San Francisco. Then, there’s the challenging Claremont Canyon and Berkeley Fire Trails route, which takes you from Berkeley’s campus up to soaring views of San Francisco—and back. Down by the bay, there is a walk along the Berkeley waterfront that explores parks and a marina transformed from their former lives as the city dump.

The chapter also features three stairway walks that highlight some of the hundreds of paths and stairways scattered throughout this city. Berkeley Paths Rock: Part I and Part II visit city parks with medium-sized and even giant boulders, a vestige of volcanic eruptions more than ten million years ago. And the Claremont Stairway Walk crosses into Oakland, passing by the Claremont Club & Spa (a.k.a. the Claremont Hotel) and urban oasis John Garber Park, which has its own 0.75-mile self-guided nature walk.