Arroyo del Valle Trail

Understand

The Arroyo del Valle Trail is a paved 2.5-mile trail in Sycamore Grove Park and Veterans Memorial Park. The first approximately two miles of the trail are in Sycamore Grove Park and the last half-mile of the Arroyo del Valle Trail is in Veterans Memorial Park. The Arroyo del Valle Trail's accessibility makes it a popular trail for families, individual hikers, and elderly people alike. Not all of the trail's visitors hike the whole 2.5 mi (4.0 km) of the trail, but many people explore the first part of it.

Prepare

Dress according to the weather and bring a few dollars for the parking fee at the Sycamore Grove or Veterans Memorial Park staging areas. To avoid the fee, free parking is available at 1 Independence Park, which requires a short walk of a few hundred yards to reach the park entrance.

Eat Pack enough food for a picnic along the way, as there are no dining facilities directly on the trail.

Drink Carry sufficient water for your trek to stay hydrated, especially during warmer months.

Climate The area experiences cool winters and intense summer heat. In winter, aim for an afternoon hike to catch the warmest part of the day. In summer, start at sunrise and aim to finish by 11:00 AM to avoid the midday heat.

Get in

There are two main staging areas, one at each end of the Arroyo del Valle Trail: one is the 1 Sycamore Grove Staging Area and the other is the 2 Veterans Memorial Park Staging Area. The most popular staging area is the Sycamore Grove Staging Area, but both are easily accessible by car, and neither staging area is far from the southern suburbs of Livermore. To get to the Sycamore Grove Staging Area, where this itinerary will begin, drive along Wetmore Road until you get to the Dante Robere Winery. When you reach the winery, you should see a parking lot across the street from it and a sign that says the name of the park is "Sycamore Grove Park". Turn into this parking lot. A cycle trail network exists throughout the southern fringes of Livermore, and one of the paths in this trail network runs parallel to Wetmore Rd. The path, which is paved, provides access to the Sycamore Grove Staging Area. Neither staging area is served by public transit.

Walk

This itinerary will begin at the Sycamore Grove Staging Area, go to Veterans Memorial Park via the Arroyo del Valle Trail, and then come back the same way for a total journey of about 5½ miles. At the Sycamore Grove Staging Area, there are three trails you can take: one of them is at the far end of the parking lot and the other two begin at the end of the parking lot where the parking meter and the restrooms can be found. Of the two trails, begin walking along the paved one, which is the Arroyo del Valle Trail. After a very short distance, the paved trail will turn to the right. It will then cross a gully and on your left will be the 2 Botanical Garden, a special garden of native plant species. The botanical garden consists of a very short paved loop that goes around the garden. At the far end of the garden, a drawing of a bird is carved into the pavement. On the other side of the Arroyo del Valle Trail from the botanical garden is a 1 picnic area with some picnic benches and picnic tables underneath a couple of trees. Just beyond the picnic area and the botanical garden on the Arroyo del Valle Trail, there is an intersection. If you go left, you will be on a paved path that soon turns into a narrow dirt trail called the 2 Magpie Nature Loop. This trail is less than 0.5 mi (0.80 km) in length but gives you a more "off the beaten path" impression of the Sycamore Grove region. About halfway along the loop, there is a trail that leads to the left, but take the trail to the right to get back to the paved trail. The second part of the Magpie Loop Trail goes along a riverbank. After less than half a mile, the nature loop returns to the Arroyo del Valle Trail. Once you get back to the Arroyo del Valle Trail, turn left to continue along the main route. Just after you return to the Arroyo del Valle Trail, you will arrive at the 3 first creek crossing of the Arroyo del Valle, the main stream that flows through Sycamore Grove Park. The amount of water carried by the stream is not constant: during a drought in the mid-2010s, the no water flowed down the stream, but after heavy rains in the later 2010s, the stream reached almost dangerously high levels. There is a bridge, bu

Stay safe

The Arroyo del Valle hike is pretty safe because, unlike the Ohlone Trail, there are usually enough people hiking to keep the mountain lions away, and the fairly wide paved trail should mean that you will spot a rattlesnake before it can harm you. However, there are exceptions, and mountain lions have in the past been spotted within the Sycamore Grove Park boundaries.

Go next

Del Valle Regional Park – a narrow trail goes from the Veterans Staging Area to the northern staging area of Del Valle Park. The trail is only about 1 mi (1.6 km) long and gives you access to the East Shore Trail in Del Valle Park, which in turn leads on to the Ohlone Regional Wilderness Trail, which is nearly 30 mi (48 km) and goes all the way to Fremont. However, you need to a permit to hike in the Ohlone Regional Wilderness Trail. Livermore hiking/cycling trail network – the city of Livermore, which is north of Sycamore Grove Park, has a good trail network that can be accessed from the Sycamore Grove Staging Area. The trails in this network are paved and extend across much of the southeastern Livermore wine country.