iron horse trail

Jog, bike, walk, stroll, skate. Whatever your preference, this 20+ mile-long paved former railroad right of way offers a wonderful experience through a mix of suburban, riparian, and meadowland. Perfect for a serious workout in the modes cited above, or for a long relaxing walk/jog/bike. Great for families and groups. There are just a few narrow areas and bridges, but predominately the trail is wide and smooth. There are a few areas with parallel trails, mostly gravel, and seems to be popular with dog walkers (please pick up your dog's poop, people!). You can walk/ride/jog along until a cross street and usually find a little retail area with places to eat, etc. Literally, you can spend a full day just travelling the Iron Horse Trail. This place is a gem!

I get on this trail every month, but rarely in the winter because of the rain and cold. I'm always on my bike. I don't know how long the trail is, but it goes on for many miles. I usually jump on it in San Ramon and go up to Danville and back. It's a nice paved, level trail for most all of the way. I take it for the ability to have a long consistent ride without need to worry about cars since I never ride on the streets. Often there is need to stop for a crossing with road traffic. Sometimes that means you need to push a crossing button and on a few occasions there are automated sensors that trip lights for crossing cars to stop while trail people go across. Still, you have to waiting for anxious drivers as you cross. Also the trail is somewhat narrow, so you need to be careful whether you are walking or biking.Since it is a long trail, there are times when you need to stop for food, drink, or bathroom breaks if you are on a long walk or ride. Fortunately, there are many such places to jump off the trail and visit a local place if you don't bring your own goodies. Note, in the summer time, it can get hot and sunny along the trail because it is rarely shaded along the way.I don't take this trail for the view because there isn't much of any view to see. In the spring, there are some occasional nice patches of flowers along the way, but the trail is really for the exercise. If there were better scenery and less crossing points, then it would be a 5 rating for me.

Great series of trails connecting many towns and cities in the SF East Bay. Love the area that covers Danville and Alamo... you can ride your bike peacefully all the way to Concord and beyond. Very safe and beautiful to stop and visit the towns and have a bite to eat in between. Great restaurants in Danville, Alamo and Walnut Creek near the trail.

This is an excellent trail that stretches through several different cities in the San Francisco Bay area. I love that it has long sections (namely in the San Ramon/Dublin area) that avoid car traffic and regular roads. The trail is well maintained and awesome to rollerblade, bike ride, walk with a stroller, friends or by yourself. I have always felt safe even when running by myself. There are no porta-potties on the trails, so be prepared. Several areas of the trails run near shopping centers or gas stations, so you can always exit the path and take care of business.

I live in the east bay and love to come to this trail to bike with my friends or husband. It's flat and goes for miles through Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, and Danville. There are multiple places you can turn off and go have a lunch in between or end up with a dinner before you head back. The weather tends to be better here than most other trail rides in the Bay Area except for in the Summer when it can get pretty hot. Not a really scenic ride since it's mostly along a railroad track in between housing tracts but there are some nice spurts of scenery and it's a nice stretch of the legs.

This is one of the best and longest bike and walking trails in the East Bay. Named Iron Horse Trail, because it is built along an old railroad path, hence the name Iron Horse. It starts in the north in Walnut Creek and goes south all the way to Dublin, passing through Danville and San Ramon. The trail is basically dead flat. There are water fountains along the way, although they are spread out a bit, so carry water. The trail does cross trafficked streets, so you do have to stop and cross carefully. Further south of San Ramon the trail has long stretches with no cross traffic. The surfaces vary from nice new asphalt to old and a bit bumpy asphalt and to smooth concrete in the San Ramon area. The middle parts in the Danville area are quite heavily used by pedestrians so watch out and keep the speed down. An alternative to the path through Alamo and Danville is the bike lane on San Ramon Blvd. This is more suited to higher speed bike traffic. Skaters and walkers, stay on the path. There is ample parking at various points along the path. For more info google Iron Horse Trail for maps and info. This is a super great resource to have here in the East Bay!

I've walked the trail in the San Ramon area. It's a well maintained paved path that is perfect for a bike, stroller or just a walk. The trail connects to a local park which makes a great place for parking. During the week there were plenty of casual bike enthusiasts as well as nearby professionals taking a break from their office.

We bike rode this trail in Pleasanton up to the north part of San Ramon. Once we found the "real trail," we very much enjoyed it. It was comfortably crowded, with grasses and wildflowers blooming along the sides of the path. It's pretty level, so no difficult hills here. The downside is the at-grade street crossings (compared to, for example, the Los Gatos Creek Trail where you typically go underneath all streets). But they did have crosswalks and push-buttons at many of the busiest streets, so it was not unpleasant. We turned around at a Starbucks in North San Ramon right off the trail, and had a repast here. There was also a Mexican and Italian restaurant nearby the Starbucks, but we opted to eat later (but I might make these establishments destinations on future rides on this trail. But on the way back, just 2 blocks off the trail at Bollinger Canyon Road, we stopped at a Yogurtland for a treat. Great day!However, I would advise to NOT attempt to start the trail in Pleasanton — we started at Valley Ave and Busch Rd., which appeared on Google Maps to be the south terminus of the trail. Unfortunately after you go perhaps 2 miles, there is considerable trail construction and some detour signs taking you on city streets. But worse, when the signs got us back on the trail, several times we had to turn back a number of blocks because they were pouring fresh concrete without proper signage giving us advance warning. This was being done by a private construction company (not Government workers), and we were yelled at for being where we were. We explained that there was signage directing us that way, and no advance warning that the trail was impassible, but the crews were nonetheless rather rude. The first crew pointed the way to bypass their construction, and that path just lead us to the second construction point where we again had to turn back. But once on the established trail, it was great!

Very nice, but very sunny, walk. Usually quiet but with a fair number of other walkers and bicycle riders.

We took a family bike ride from Dublin to San Ramon. The paved path is flat and without bumps/cracks. Crosswalks are safe. The path is clean. There are places to stop and take breaks. People are friendly. We made Whole Foods our destination so we could have lunch after about 5 miles of biking. On the way back, we stopped and played at a school field. The ride is enjoyable and quiet. Great for families with young riders.

This trail goes along the path of the former railroad, so it's straight and fairly flat. It crosses some creeks and goes through some trees, so it's reasonably scenic. It's probably around 20 miles long, so you can spend a whole day there.A couple things you need to know about.1. It does cross a few streets. So if you want to beat your running record or let your little kids bike loose - you should consider street crossings.2. There are a few overpasses and you're planning to roller blade - getting up and especially down could be a problem.Otherwise it's a great trail.

Iron Horse Trail is a well-paved multi-use trail that stretches from Dublin BART to Concord Highway 4. It is excellent for bicycling (and walking) as it does not require street riding. All major road crossings have signals. The Dublin to Danville section is rather boring, straight, and out in the open - it gets hot. Danville to Walnut Creek is primarily in the shade with some hot spots on the North end, and there are a lot of small street crossings. The Walnut Creek to Concord also has a lot of shade (in the morning; afternoon - maybe?) with the open hotter area in Concord/North. If Bicycling, ride North in the morning when there are light headwinds normally. Bicycle South in the afternoon when the wind picks so that most of the wind is a cross-wind or tail-wind. Bicyclist should have a bell as the walkers tend to block the trail walking in the middle or 3 abreast. I'm sure the walkers have things to say about us bicyclists, too.

I'm a bit phobic about biking in traffic and this trail is ideal. It is a rails to trails paved path and it goes from the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station up to Walnut Creek, which is probably a 20 mile ride. I live in Dublin and have biked up to San Ramon many times. I've also ridden BART from Dublin up to Pleasant Hill Station and biked from there back to Dublin. A great, paved walking path too. A wonderful area to see many types of dogs walking their humans, especially in the Danville area.

The Iron Horse Trail (named for the trains that plied this strip of land) is a fantastic miles-long trail for hiking and/or biking that goes for miles through many little cities in Alameda and Contra Costa county. The ride or hike along the old railroad right-of-way can be done at whatever pace you want to set for yourself and many families make it a daylong adventure, stopping for ice cream or sandwiches in some of the shopping center eateries or grocery stores that border the trail along its' length. Just remember to go easy and not too far, save some energy for the return ride, wear a helmet or wide-brim hat, and take plenty of sun screen.

Whether you walk, run or bike, this trails is pretty awesome. It i very well maintained and it keeps going and going and going. I am so lukcy to have this trail right in my backyward. It is always nice to see so many people exercising on the trail or just walking their dogs. For the most part, I feel pretty safe using this trail. But of course everyone still need to use their common sense and be security conscious when walking on any trail.