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