Nature and Hiking
UC Botanical Gardens – Berkeley maintains a massive, beautiful botanical garden in the Berkeley Hills. It’s located atop the football stadium and has a breathtaking view of the Bay and Golden Gate Bridge. Berkeley’s unique climate allows the gardeners to maintain plants from all over the world, including cacti, desert plants, rainforests, tropical regions, forests. Free for Berkeley graduate students; $15 for all other adults.
Tilden Regional Park - Lots of different hiking trails. Inspiration point is beautiful as is the area around Lake Anza.
Muir Woods - Muir Woods National Monument is part of California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area, north of San Francisco. It’s known for its towering old-growth redwood trees. Parking is $8 and entrance is $15.
Redwood Regional Park - bigger, better, less crowded version of Muir Woods in Oakland.
Joaquin Miller Park - The recommended hike combines the two most scenic parts of the park: a lush redwood-filled gorge on the Palos Colorados Trail and a hilltop redwood grove on the Big Trees Trail.
Indian Rock Park - A small park overlooking the bay. Plenty of bouldering on the lower side of Indian Rock and Mortar Rock Park a block up the street.
Mount Tamalpais - in the North Bay, so requires a car to access. However, the parks of Marin County offer some of the best-maintained trails, and the trip up there is worth the car rental (or make good buddies with your fellow grad students with cars!)
Marin Headlands - has similar limitations as Mount Tam, but there are great views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the actual ocean
Briones Regional Park - also a little farther, located eastward toward Walnut Creek
Mount Diablo
Mission Peak
Last updated