Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland

Joaquin Miller Park is a wonderful city park, managed by the City of Oakland. It's amazing to me how lush and remote the park feels when it is so close to such a major urban area. I went on a 4.4-mile lollipop trail that took me on a pretty thorough tour of this park. Click "read more" below to see more details of the hike and more photos from the day's adventure.

Map credit: redwoodhikes.com

I decided to do the featured hike of the park from one of my favorite websites (link here). I am *really* glad that I followed this route, because my favorite part of the hike was the stick of the lollipop, the Palos Colorados trail through the steep, ivy-covered ravine of Palo Seco Creek. This part of the trail is most easy to access if you park outside of the main parking area, and I would have missed it!

It was a scorcher today--most of the Bay Area was 100° F or more; however, Oakland was a cool 91° and in the deep shade of the redwood canyon, it really wasn't that bad at all.

Although the route that I did was definitely not a good route for young kids, the portion of the park closer to Skyline Drive *is* great for little ones. Indeed, the portion of the Big Trees Trail that I hiked would be perfect for even very young kids, and the Sequoia-Bayview Trail was flat enough for pushing a stroller. I can definitely imagine bringing my toddler here later in the summer.

Here is a better map of the park and some of the parks nearby. I am already looking forward to coming back here.