Bishop Ranch Regional Preserve

This is one of the smallest parks in the East Bay Regional Park system. Many people come here on the weekend to walk their dogs or just go for a short stroll. It’s not a very rugged place, and there’s not really any danger of getting lost.
We have brought our border collie to this park many times, and he enjoys running around looking for squirrels and rabbits.
There’s also some secret entrances to this park. If you look carefully at the map, you can find some secret legal ways into the park.

My husband and I came to San Ramon for a wedding, and had the morning/​afternoon free so we checked out things nearby to do.
Just like the other reviews said, there was plenty of poop on some parts of the trail. I would say though the majority of the hike was not poopy. The beginning was not, (like some reviews said) so we thought someone had cleaned it up. About 15 minutes into the hike, we saw a bunch. Yes, it was like playing frogger, hopping around to avoid the poop.
It was a Saturday morning, and gorgeous weather, but we only saw ONE person on the trail the entire three hours we were there. ONE! What a nice quiet hike with gorgeous views, and nice scenery on a Saturday! It was almost like we had our own private hike.
There was one very steep hill that was a bit of a challenge to get down without slipping, but we did it! Fun hike!

Lame lame lame.
My husband and I came here over the weekend and definitely were not impressed. Although there are some pretty good incline hills to get a good workout, the view is less than thrilling and there are cow patties EVERYWHERE. You literally have to look down the entire time to avoid stepping in a pile. It is also very dry and barren, without an ounce of shade or pretty trees to walk through.
We will not be returning.

We trekked the creek trail, which was dappled with streaming sunlight. Beautiful canopy of oaks, yellow willow, buckeye and other California natives. Lovely trail and the kids felt like explorers finding new land. We had a respite from the busy city life as the trees envelop you in their separate world. Warning, the creek trail is surrounded by poison oak, looking leafy, beautiful and beckoning with their itchy oils. Bring the technu or slather it on afterwards. People were friendly and chatty. The preserve was excellent.

My friend and I were looking for a trail not too far from where we lived and we stumbled on this place!
It was hard to find at first, but we were glad that we decided to keep driving down the street where we eventually saw the park sign.
We expected cow turds (since we read previous reviews), but we were pleasantly surprised to find out there wasn’t any! The weather was nearly perfect, and we both had a good time. There was some steep hills throughout the trail, but we made it! We will definitely feel sore tomorrow!

As someone else said… POOP.
I mean literally you can’t enjoy the beautiful scenery bc every step you take you’re trying to avoid cowpies.
I get that they are up there and grazing and I respect the animals and don’t approach never mind touch them but there’s seriously poop everywhere. So bad that the right hand turn you’re supposed to take to follow the red tail trail looks like it’s just a big olé patch of poop.
It would definitely be more enjoyable if you don’t care about bringing some turds home with you.

This place is very nice to et away and go hiking, the hills are pretty steep but makes the walk very nice as you are able to see over most of the tri-​valley.
I go often and am never disappointed.

One word: POOP!
Found this local hiking trail on Unilocal and was so excited to do a short hike with the family. It’s located off Bollinger Canyon Road and Morgan Street (west side of highway 680). The entrance is about a mile or so south on Morgan.
The brochure holder for the trail maps was full — good sign, right? Well-​maintained? Well. there was a pile of dog poop right at the main entrance. Hmm… we walked/​hiked only about .25miles in before we said forget it! It was crazy how much crap was on and along the trail. Unfortunately, even with the plastic bags provided at the entrance, some dog owners who use this park don’t care and are inconsiderate.
Let me repeat. There was so much crap everywhere! Fresh crap and old crap. I can understand the occasional cow pies and horse manure we encountered since it is their pasture.
There was also a very very steep incline at the beginning of the trail– almost 45 degree slope. Be careful if you bring small children.
The scenery was nice and we observed several woodpeckers pecking at a tree.
I’m not returning to this place and would not recommend it unless you don’t mind playing «frogger» with piles of crap.

I love this place for how close it is to my home. Who would have thought such beauty and awesome little trails would be so close to suburbia.
What I love most is the terrain to the giant climb you do when you first start off to the valley trails leading to more secluded smaller river trails below. So many different kinds of terrain for such a local spot. Dogs welcome and never busy. Love this place for quick 2 miler+ hikes. In the Spring, all the fields of wildflowers are out and even some gangs of turkeys were gobbling their way talking to my kids on our last hike.

Now that it’s actually light out after work and the hills are a glorious, glorious green from all our recent rain, Bishop Ranch made for a great post-​workday hike. I’ve seen these same hills from my office building and didn’t realize it was part of the East Bay Regional Park system. Easy access to the trail head if you take San Ramon Valley Blvd South, then make a right on Morgan Drive. You’ll see signs for the park just past a residential development and there is plenty of parking along the road.
There are trail maps right at the entrance, that include both Bishop Ranch and Las Trampas. This particular preserve is on the small side and not too hard to navigate. There is a loop that will take you from the entrance to the beginning of Stream View Trail, going straight up hill for a short while, that connects with Grey Fox Trail, Red Tail Hawk and then back on to Stream View to get back down to where you parked.
Because of the lateness of the hour (we arrived close to 6 PM. and weren’t quite sure how long the whole loop would take us), we did part of the Stream View Trail and Grey Fox, with back tracking.
Most of the trail is quite open and unshaded, making it perfect for this time of year, but highly advisable to stay away from during the summer. However, part of the Stream View trail had a meandering, more narrow trail that had some shade. There were some fallen trees along that path, but completely manageable to get around.
This is a great park to visit when you only have a short time to hike and/​or are with more novice hikers. It seems perfect for an early evening nature walk and if I lived nearby, I’d use this area for regular walks versus a paved path.
We didn’t run across any cows, but plenty of signs in the park that they are around, at least part of the time.
We’ve already got plans to come back in another week or two and make this a regular spot during the nicer weather to get fresh air and some extra steps after work.

This is a moderate, short hike. It has great views and tons of cows. I advise not touching the cows as I was charged by one of them! I wasn’t even aware cows are aggressive. Luckily when I removed my hand off the cow the other cow backed away from me. Other than this experience this hike is a good workout without being too difficult!

I went on my first hike at Bishop Ranch Regional Preserve on a weekend morning. I never would have known there was a trail there if my hiking friends hadn’t suggested it. BRRP is nestled in a residential area with street parking by the trail head. The location is easy to get to right off of Bollinger Canyon Rd. exit off the freeway.
The hike itself was a strenuous up and back hike approximately 3.32 miles round trip. The trail was incredibly steep. The initial ascent was the steepest and you get up to high elevation quickly. I would not suggest this hike if it were muddy from the rain. Also, there are no trees along the trail so it probably wouldn’t be a pleasant hike during very sunny or hot days.
This is a great hike if you only have an hour to spend in the outdoors and you don’t need to go out to the boondocks. It’s not scenic but you will see the rolling green (for now) hills. It’s a work out for sure trekking up the hills. Decent neighborhood trail. There are few people on the trail so you can enjoy the quietness and solitude. Note that there is no restroom or water available at the trail head.

This is a pretty nice place to hike but can be extremely steep and scary at times, plus there’s not much shade out in the open. But if you make it to the top, you will see some spectacular views of the Tri-​Valley and San Ramon. Not many people are present, but watch out for a lot of horse manure, which probably doesn’t get cleaned up very often. Also, there are no restroom facilities within this preserve. Wouldn’t recommend this for kids because of how steep and slippery it can be at times.

Took my dog on this hike and it was a good experience. I had heard it was an easy hike so I wasn’t entirely prepared for how steep some of the hills were, but it really wasn’t too bad. My dog did drink all of the water I brought though, and was pretty tired at the end. I will have to remember to bring more next time! But I did enjoy the views an the length of the loop I took (about 2 miles). It was nice to be able to do a full loop without it taking up 2 and a half hours of my day. Will probably be doing this one again. Oh and my dog was off leash the whole time with no problems.

Came here on a geocaching hike with the family. Great views and some steep hills. On a hot day it’s nice to take the trail by the creek and then head up the hill.
In case you hike with the toddler/​preschool set like we do there are no bathrooms here.

this park is great. Beautiful views, nice, steep workout. Look out for the cows, they can sometimes be agressive.

I went hiking on this trail once with my sister, two dogs, and my little brother. I did not know about how steep and dangerous the hill was. It was not only steep but covered with rocks and dirt, making it very slippery. My little brother was grabbing onto one of my arm and I was holding the leash with the other while gaining control of myself. It was very dangerous and I would not recommend any little kids to come here.
I would come back hiking here because it was a great workout for the dogs and the scenery was pretty. It did not have dangerous wild animals like other trail and it was a good distant from my house. I would definitely recommend people to come here to work out, but remember to bring water with you.

I found out about this place when searching for pet friendly hiking trails for my dog. The traffic is relatively light, for the past few times I’ve been there, I was the only one there. I believe the reason for that could be the extremely steep hills that are a bit hard to climb.
The trail had large rocks and pebbles all round making the way up and down extremely difficult and a little scary at times. (I slipped two times on my way down) Good thing is you can let your dog off leash at more secluded areas. The trail however is exposed so you’ll be directly under the sun.
Scenery however is beautiful if you could somehow make your way all the way up to the open land. There aren’t as many animals that lives there compared to other trails but I caught glimpse of wild turkey vultures the last time.
Overall the place is alright but the climb is difficult, not ideal for hot weathers because there is no shade. The view is well worth it though, a place well worth going by.