Trail Map of Briones Regional Park Exploration

Moderate: 2.2 miles, 1-3 hours

Overview: Just a 10-minute drive from Berkeley, Briones Regional Park is a 6,117 acre park in Contra Costa County. Its home to plentiful East Bay wildlife, including birds, snakes and newts. In some areas, it's still used as grazing land by local herds, part of a cattle ranching history that's more than 100 years old. The park's ridge tops offer stunning views of Mount Diablo and the San Francisco Bay.



Tips:

California Newts

One of the most unique species found in Briones Regional Park is the California Newt (Taricha torosa). With a brown dorsal and bright orange belly, they look almost exactly the same as another amphibian found in the park, the rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa). Their coloring isn’t just for decoration. California newts are actually poisonous. They contain tetrodotoxin, or TTX, the same neurotoxin found in pufferfish. The toxin acts as a deterrent against predators, but recently, scientists discovered that one predator, the garter snake, had found an advantage. Charles T. Hanifin, an evolutionary biologist at Stanford, and colleagues studied 20,000 garter snakes and 500 newts in habitats along the Pacific Coast. They discovered in four areas, garter snakes had developed a resistance to the newts’ poison. One of the areas is Briones Reservoir, directly next to Briones Regional Park. This toxic arms race between species is known as “co-evolution.”

Directions

With rolling hills and narrow valleys, the park can be accessed from Lafayette, Orinda, and Pleasant Hill.

Alhambra Staging Area 2537 Reliez Valley Road Martinez, CA (Map)


Phone: 925-370-3020

The park is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

There is a $3 parking fee at most staging areas