Coyote Hills Regional Park (EBRP)  Fremont      
  AA - C; *** ; Transit? Rainy Weather Yes     
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This park has many miles of accessible trails and fine birdwatching. If you have a fast power chair it's entirely feasible to take a bus on Padre Paseo Blvd to Patterson Ranch Rd and follow Tuibun Trail 0.6 mile to the entrance.

Once in the park, the marshes on your right are criss-crossed by accessible trails, though they may be muddy in the rainy season, while the mostly paved Bayview Trail offers about a 3.5 mile hike around the eponymous hills, with only a few medium steep stretches. Some other trails in these hills are also useable; notably the Apay Way Trail, mostly well graded fine gravel, which goes 1.5 more miles south.

The last part of this trail becomes medium steep and, where it's cut into the rocky hillside, a pretty rough ride. If you can manage this tough part, you'll enjoy an amazing view into Dumbarton Quarry, which once produced many a truck load of rock and gravel, and which now is undergoing a makeover. In 2009 I heard of plans calling for it to be filled with fresh water, stocked with trout, landscaped and opened for fishing, picnicing and camping in 2010, but I was there in September 2012 and they seem to be trying to fill it with truckloads of dirt and what looks like asphalt. Busy busy busy!

Very shortly after passing the Quarry you reach the overpass, which crosses Hwy 84 above the Dumbarton Bridge toll plaza and continues down to the Don Edwards SF Bay Wildlife Refuge. (If it is the quarry that interests you, you could get there much more easily by coming north from the Wildlife Refuge -- the only obstacle is a modest climb to the overpass.)

A third possible expedition is on the level and paved Alameda Creek Trail, which skirts the north edge of the marshes, and can be reached either by taking the paved but somewhat hilly Bayview Trail north from the Visitor Center (where the linking trail has a short steep stretch) or the level gravel DUST Trail across the marsh, (where the linking trail is also steep, where it goes up onto the levee). The Alameda Creek Trail will take you west a couple of miles out into the salt flats, or east as many as 10 miles, following the much altered creek to its source in Niles Canyon.

Details: The picnic area and the Visitor Center are pleasant, as is the Dairy Glen group campground, which has recently been improved with the addition of accessible (vault) toilets.Unfortunately the ones inside the Visitor Center still have wheelchair stalls too small to permit closing the door behind your chair. At least there's a portable toilet outside for those who are willing to forego running water to get privacy.

AC Transit line 238 stops at Padre Paseo and Patterson Ranch Rd. By car, exit Hwy 84 at Paseo Padre Parkway, go north a couple of miles to Patterson Ranch Rd, left to the park.. There is an admission charge when the kiosk is attended. Dogs other than service animals are not permitted in some parts of the park. There are blue spaces and accessible toilets at both parking areas; benches are provided along the marsh trails, at the junction of Alameda Creek and Bayview Trails and at the west end of Alameda Creek Trail, but are less frequent on the hillier trails. Last visit September 2012.