Location: Crockett, CA
Distance: Various
Type: Day-hike; Trail System
Rating: Easy to Moderate
Permits & Fees: None; free parking
Preparation
Crockett Hills Regional Park is located in Crockett, a small town located in Contra Costa, CA. In order to guarantee parking, we left around 8 a.m. and arrived close to 9:30 a.m. There were no cars in the parking lot when we arrived at the Crockett Ranch Staging Area.
Trail Summary – 7.71 Miles Total
Please refer to this map:
- Trailhead – Edwards Creek Trail to Edwards Loop Trail (right at fork) – .42 miles
- Edwards Loop Trail to Sky Trail (the tunnel) – .65 miles
- Sky Trail to Big Valley Trail (right at the fork) – 1.08 miles
- Big Valley Trail (Section 1) to start of Kestral Loop (straight at fork) – .47 miles
- Kestral Loop back to Big Valley Trail (Section 2) – 1.08 miles
- Big Valley Trail (Section 2 to Section 1) to Sky Trail – 1 mile
- Sky Trail to Soaring Eagle Trail (left at fork) – .33 miles
- Soaring Eagle Trail to Sky Trail (will run into tunnel, mentioned above) – 1.61 miles
- Edwards Loop Trail to Edwards Creek Trail – .65 miles
- Edwards Creek Trail to Trailhead – .42 miles
The Hike
We began the hike taking the Edwards Creek Trail. This trail continues on to a different portion of the park, but we took a right at the fork that reads “Edwards Creek Loop”:
This portion of the trail lead us to a small tunnel that runs under Cummings Skyway Road. Note: There are several parts of the trail with gates that are “locked” along the way. They’re easy to open, but make sure to close them behind you. See example:
Once we reached the other side of the tunnel, we continued on the Sky Trail towards Big Valley Trail. We took a right to start the first portion of the Big Valley Trail. This trail continued for a little less than half a mile until it turned into Kestral Loop Trail. Kestral Loop Trail is a little less than 2 miles and took us back to another portion of the Big Valley Trail. We took Big Valley Trail (not to be confused with the first portion of this trail) back to Sky Trail.
While making our way back towards the trailhead, we decided to take Soaring Eagle Trail instead of Sky Trail. Soaring Eagle Trail veers left off of the Sky Trail. After about a mile, the trail runs back into Sky Trail. From here, we took the trail back to the same tunnel that runs under the road. For the rest of the hike, we traced our steps back down Edwards Loop Trail, eventually joining with Edwards Creek Trail, which led us back to the trailhead. The weather was perfect the day we decided to hike Crockett Hills. It’s not a very well known area, so the entire hike was quiet and peaceful. If you’re into mountain biking, this area is very well known for the sport due to the several trail systems running through the park.
