A Refreshing Winter Hike Wish Broad Views: Hiking at Vargas Plateau Regional Park

Date: February 27, 2024

Place: Vargas Plateau Regional Park, Fremont, California

Coordinates: 37.574886, -121.932658

Length: 3.6 miles

Level: moderate

 

 

 I live very close to Vargas Plateau Regional Park. My friend asked about going hiking with my one day last winter, bit I was tight on time that day and didn't want to drive too far from home, I suggested hiking at Vargas Plateau. I hiked this park numerous times already but haven't yet written about this particular loop trail. This was a good chance to add this trail to my hiking blog.  

Our hike as captured by my GPS

My friend and I met at the upper staging area and started up the path that linked the trailhead from the main trail which was, like all pf the trails in this park, a wide farm dirt road. 

 

Late in February the East Bay hills were wearing deep green and were absolutely gorgeous to see. The crisp winter air was nice and clear and we had a lovely view of the Bay and the City of Fremont below us. 

I turned around and looked back. The trail was streaked with runoff water  seeping from the upper slope. Mission Peak, green as well, loomed in the background. 

  

We moved ahead at a good pace. There weren't too many humans in the park that day, but the hills were crawling with ground squirrels. They used the nice day and the break in the rains to fix their burrows and to gather food. Sentinels stood by the colony's main opening and watched for potential predators. If they deemed we were too close they would dart into the burrow. 

California Ground Squirrel

 

Oak savannah is a common landscape and plant community in the East Bay. In the upper part of Vargas Plateau however, it is more of a savannah with only a few oaks here and there. Most of the oaks were in the gullies and only a few adorned the knoll tops.  

 

Squirrels weren't the only active wildlife around. Birds, especially little songbirds were enjoying the lovely day as well. Most of them were so active though, that I found it difficult to focus my camera on them. I did bring Pappa Quail's binoculars along - I know the location of a burrowing owl's nest in this park. The owl wasn't visible though, so I had to settle for less exciting birds. 

Brewer's Blackbird, female

 

 In springtime, Vargas Plateau features a lovely bloom scene. We were there very early though, right at the beginning of the ephemeral bloom. The poppies weren't blooming yet, but the first buttercup blossoms shone at us from the green grass. 

Common Buttercup, Ranunculus californicus

 

To go on the Ranch Loop Trail we had to pass through a cattle gate. The cows weren't grazing close that day, but evidence of their recent presence there was everywhere. The cow droppings were an excellent substrate for fungi, and many of the cow pies we've seen were already sprouting a bunch of mushrooms.  

Mushrooms

 

Shortly before taking the loop we had to cross a part of the trail that was flooded and very, very muddy. Little tree frogs were hopping before us in the grass, but none of the photos I took was any good - they were hiding too well between the blades of the grass. 

Trail

  

 We moved on, chatting and enjoying the hike and the lovely day. We noticed a few more flowers along the trail - early violet bloom. Two weeks later I would take my family hiking group on that very same loop trail, and the violets, which were only a few now, would cover the hillside with yellow. 

California Golden Violet, Viola pedunculata

 

 The trail curved westward and descended into a more forested area. It was very muddy there and both my friend and I were struggling to keep steady footholds. My friend, who came in her sneakers that day rather than in her hiking boots, also tried keeping them reasonably clean, but I think at some point she gave up on that. At the lowest part of the loop was a small cattle watering pond. The pond was completely covered with rusty colored duckweed, which gave the pond and almost solid look. 

Cattle Pond

   

 My friend hiked with me enough times to memorize some of the plant names I divulge to her without her asking for it. The edible miner's lettuce was one of these plants and there were many of them growing along that part of the trail. 

Narrow-leaved Miner's Lettuce, Claytonia parviflore

 

The few early butterflies that hatched from their pupae to check out the ephemeral bloom were not easier to photograph than the birds - they too were more active when sunny. I did get lucky a few times, though. 

Cabbage Butterfly

 

The trail started ascending again at a mild slope. We exited the forested area and once again we were hiking the sunny, open grassland.  

 

 We stopped for a snack break at the northwest point of the trail, where it curved sharply south. There were nice rocks to sit on there, and a great view of Niles Canyon where the Alameda Creek was coming out of the hills into the canal that leads its water all the way to the San Francisco Bay. Directly below us was the City of Fremont. We could see the lovely blue jewel-like ponds of Quarry Lakes Regional Park. Farther west, right on the eastern bay shore, rose the hills of Coyote Hills Regional Park, merely small bumps from the high point of view we were sitting at.

View northwest

 

After our break we continued hiking - a bit uphill at first, then the trail leveled and curved along the hillside contour. That the trail was level didn't make it easy to hike that day - it was very muddy still, and flooded in many places. We tried walking on the edges in these places and had to be careful not to slip on the sleek grass.

Oak knoll

 

After some struggle in the mud we completed the upper ranch loop trail and crossed the cattle gate again. Once again we had a nice view of the flat low land below - the south part of the City of Fremont and its Central Park with Lake Elizabeth appearing close to the hill's bottom, the South Bay's large salt ponds, and the veiled dark line of the Peninsula mountains below the skyline.  

 

We didn't stop again on the way back to the staging area where we were parked. I did pause momentarily because I noticed that the red maids were blooming. I didn't see them on our way out - I suppose they opened up closer to mid-day.

Red Maids, Calandrinia menziesii

 

Far below us was another duckweed-covered cattle pond. The duckweed was light green in color, not rusty, and it gave the pond an almost "iced" appearance.

Cattle Pond

   

My friend suggested we'd hike up Mission peak on our next hike together but I have hiked up Mission Peak many times already and preferred a trail I haven't hiked before. Later in spring that newer trail turned out to be the upper ridge trail at Joseph D. Grant County Park. I don't think my friend was disappointed from the choice. Right now it is too hop to go up Mission Peak, unless one goes really early in the morning. It will be some time later, I guess, before we hike together that prominent peak. 

Mission Peak

 

 I am very fortunate to have the possibility to hike mid week every now and then, and to have a good friend joining me on these hikes whenever possible. While I always look for new trails to discover, I also enjoy revisiting the same familiar places, because Nature changes continuously, and there are always new things and new sights to see.