Hiking Tilden Park Nature Area

One of the views from the top

This past weekend I hiked in Tilden Park in Berkeley, CA. It was an easy to moderate hike that was a little over 6 miles. From the direction we took the hike started of moderate and ended pretty flat and easy. I went with my hiking group again and this time my 9 year daughter came along too. I brought her because I thought one of her friends was going to come, but the other girl didn't end up going. She said she still had a good time and enjoyed the hike, so I will probably be bringing her again. We parked at the Tilden Little Farm parking lot; there was no fee to park. We took the first trail heading into the park to the left. The first like half to quarter mile of the hike was through tree that had grown over in an arch shape. There were a lot of low hanging

branches that you either had to duck under or step over.  It was walking through an enchanted forest, it was soo pretty. The path then opened up to a small lake which had ducks in it, Jewel Lake. After admiring the pond we then continued on the path around, where there was a bridge that we

crossed.  After that the path opened up to a larger path/road where we could either go left or right and went left and then took a quick right to get back onto the path. We took the peak trail up and it kind of zigs and zags and goes around all the way to the top. And the views are beautiful from the top. It was a cloudy day, but it was still beautiful. Not quite as beautiful as the view of Berkeley Fire Trails hike I did the week before, but still very nice. I can only imagine how nice it is on a clear day.

To me that's when the hike got a little boring. The rest, the last 3 to 4 miles, was mostly flat and partially downhill. I get bored when long hikes are flat. It would be good for jogging or just enjoying your day. The are several benches along the way of that

part, where you can relax and look at the view. At the end of the hike we came down by the animals of the Little Farm. They have cows, chickens, pigs, and ducks. If you bring you own lettuce and celery, you can feed them. Next time I told my daughter we will have to remember to bring some veggies for them. 

There are a couple of trails out there so if you are planning to hike Tilden Nature Area and have never done it before, I suggest you bring a map and map out your way ahead of time. A couple members of our group seemed to take a wrong turn and get lost for a little bit and we had our trail marked off along the way. All and all is was a good day and I am happy I went. My RunKeeper app said I burned almost a 1000 calories. Yayyy!!! I have included some pictures from the below. Tell me what you think. :-)