Pleasanton Ridge Just Added 2,844 Acres, and the Only Way In Runs Through Sunol

If you have hiked Pleasanton Ridge from the Foothill Road staging area for years, you know the drill. Park near the cattle gate, climb past grazing cows for the first half mile, then settle into the oak-shaded switchbacks of the Courdet Trail as it works its way up nearly a thousand feet. It is the park most Pleasanton residents picture when someone mentions "the ridge."

That picture is now incomplete. The East Bay Regional Park District has added 2,844 acres and roughly 18 miles of new trail to Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park through the Tyler Ranch Staging Area, and the route into that new ground does not start on the Pleasanton side of the hill at all. It starts by driving through the town of Sunol.

Two Staging Areas, Two Different Parks

The park's name suggests one continuous experience. On the ground, it now functions more like two parks stitched together at the ridgeline.

The staging area most Pleasanton residents already know sits off Foothill Road, reached by exiting I-680 at Castlewood Drive and heading south. From there, the classic loop is the Courdet Trail, a 4.2-mile climb with about 994 feet of elevation gain that AllTrails ranks as the park's single most reviewed route, with a 4.6-star average across more than 4,700 reviews. It is oak woodland most of the way, open grassland near the top, and you will likely share the lower switchbacks with the cattle that still graze the hillside.

The newer ground reached from Tyler Ranch is a different drive entirely. Getting there means exiting I-680 at Sunol, following Pleasanton Sunol Road and Niles Canyon Road into the town itself, then turning onto Kilkare Road and crossing the railroad tracks before reaching Foothill Road from the opposite direction. It is the same Foothill Road, approached from the far end, past a town that shares a border with Pleasanton but nothing else about that particular commute.

Here is what that drive gets you, next to what the original staging area has offered for years.

The acreage math is not a rounding error. Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park now covers 9,090 acres, and roughly a third of that ground opened within the last few years through an entrance most longtime Pleasanton hikers have never used.

The Loop That Remembers Its Own Farm History

The new mileage is not just more of the same oak grassland. The Olive and Thermalito Trail Loop, accessible from the traditional Foothill Road side, climbs through grassy slopes toward Mount Diablo views but passes through something the newer Tyler Ranch acreage does not have: a stand of olive trees planted more than a century ago by the Thermal Fruit Company. The trees are still there, still producing a Mediterranean feel that has nothing to do with landscaping and everything to do with the ridge's working-farm past before it was parkland at all.

A short distance over, the Ridgeline Trail runs directly along the Calaveras Fault, one of the active fault traces that defines this whole stretch of the East Bay hills. You do not need to be a geology enthusiast to notice it. The trail's persistent up-and-down rhythm, the abrupt changes in rock and soil color, and the way certain ridgelines seem to have been sheared and offset from their neighbors are all fault-line signatures you can see without a map.

Wildlife sightings along both the older and newer sections include bobcats, deer, owls, and eagles, according to hikers who have logged years on these trails. None of that is guaranteed on any given weekend, but it is common enough that longtime visitors mention it more often than not.

Why the Park District Is Pointing Hikers Here This Fall

The timing of all this attention is not coincidental. Pleasanton Ridge is one of five Tri-Valley parks featured in the East Bay Regional Park District's 2026 Trails Challenge, alongside the Ohlone Wilderness Trail in Sunol, Las Trampas Wilderness Regional Preserve in San Ramon, Brushy Peak Regional Preserve in Livermore, and Del Valle Regional Park in Livermore. The program, sponsored by the Regional Parks Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, and AllTrails, is built to push people past their usual two or three go-to trails and into corners of the district they might otherwise skip. Participants who log their hikes qualify for prize drawings, and free guidebooks and T-shirts are available at EBRPD visitor centers while supplies last.

For a park that just tripled its accessible acreage without most local hikers noticing, being named on that list is a nudge in the right direction. The new ground at Tyler Ranch has been open since December 2023, which means anyone who has not specifically sought it out has had nearly three years to miss it entirely.

More Ground Is Coming

The Tyler Ranch expansion is not the end of the story. The park district is actively planning a Garin-to-Pleasanton Ridge Regional Trail that would eventually connect this park to Garin Regional Park to the north, opening the currently closed, 955-acre Owen property along Palomares Road. The plan includes a new at-grade pedestrian crossing of Palomares Road itself and a realignment of the existing Stonybrook Trail to avoid a riparian area. None of it is open yet, but the direction is consistent with what has already happened at Tyler Ranch: this park keeps growing outward from Pleasanton rather than around it.

What This Means for a Saturday Morning

None of this requires abandoning the Foothill Road entrance you already know. Courdet Trail earned its reputation honestly, and the grazing cattle and oak canopy near the traditional staging area are still there for anyone who wants a familiar climb with valley views at the top.

But if your mental map of Pleasanton Ridge stops at that staging area, you are working from an outdated picture. The Tyler Ranch side offers a genuinely different hike, one that climbs to the park's high point at Sunol Peak, follows exposed ridgeline with little shade, and rewards the slightly longer drive with terrain that most Pleasanton hikers have simply never walked. Bring water either way. The Sunol Ridge Trail in particular has almost no tree cover for long stretches.

For more on what makes this stretch of the East Bay distinct day to day, our Pleasanton neighborhood guide and our earlier look at the parks, trails, and community centers that define Pleasanton cover more of the everyday spaces that make this a good place to spend a weekend, long before anyone is thinking about buying or selling a home here.

If you are already living the Pleasanton life this post describes and a move, a downsize, or helping a parent navigate a transition is somewhere on your horizon, Jo Ann Luisi and the team at Luisi & Associates are glad to talk it through whenever the timing is right. Request your free home valuation and consultation when you're ready.