Los Vaqueros Watershed
Diversity rules at Los Vaqueros, where you can test your mettle on one of the most calf-burning, lung-rasping climbs in the Bay Area – and of one of the area’s most placid canyon strolls. From the Vista Grande summit you can see a hundred miles across Central Valley to the purple ripple of the Sierra – and from the heart of Mariposa Canyon watch a stream pirouette past rocks and tree roots, carving a path between hillsides spattered by the yellows and violets of buttercups and shooting stars. You can hook striped bass in the Reservoir and watch golden eagles soar above the Black Hills.
Los Vaqueros Reservoir at sunrise viewed from Los Vaqueros Trail.
Summer solstice sunrise strikes the hills surrounding Los Vaqueros Reservoir. In the background, fog drifts through Livermore Valley. June 21, 2018.
Early-winter fog drifts through the hills bracketing the Oak Savannah Trail.
Father and daughter get hooked on one of Los Vaqueros' many family-oriented events.
The reservoir viewed from the Miwok Trail.
Naturalist John Mottashed ushers explorers-in-excrement into the intriguing world of coyote scat.
Mt. Diablo viewed from Vista Grande.
The violet voltage of shooting stars crackles through Mariposa Canyon in spring.
The fractal geometry of clouds and hills: Los Vaqueros at sunrise against the backdrop of a tidal wave of marine layer cresting above Livermore Valley.
Mt. Diablo fairy lanterns adorn the Miwok Trail.
Blue oaks at sunrise, Oak Savannah Trail.
Mariposa Canyon in spring.
Visitors to the Interpretive Center get to meet a (non-venomous) gopher snake up close, courtesy of naturalist Mike Marchiano.
Urchin galls cling to a fallen blue oak leaf in Mariposa Canyon.
A contestant in Los Vaqueros' annual Tarantula Run huffs and puffs his way up the Vista Grande Trail.
Winter mist glazes the hills overlooking the Oak Savannah Trail.