Walnut Creek Open Space is a collection of parks and land owned by the city of Walnut Creek. It consists of four main areas: Shell Ridge, Lime Ridge, Acalanes Ridge, and Sugarloaf.

History

In the early 1970s, further Walnut Creek housing developments were proposed in the

Mount Diablo Mount Diablo is a mountain of the Diablo Range, in Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County of the eastern San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. It is south of Clayton, California, Clayton and northeast of Danville, Califo ...

foothills. Local activists worked with Walnut Creek City Council to get a

bond measure A municipal bond, commonly known as a muni, is a bond issued by state or local governments, or entities they create such as authorities and special districts. In the United States, interest income received by holders of municipal bonds is often ...

for the city to purchase and preserve land put on the ballot of the June 1974 election, which voters approved.

List of parks

These areas are part of Walnut Creek Open Space:

Shell Ridge

Shell Ridge is 1,420 acres and has 31 miles of trails. It is the largest parcel of Walnut Creek Open Space, and features the ridge, foothills, and rock outcroppings. It is connected to Mount Diablo State Park via the Briones-Mount Diablo Trail, and shares borders with the

Diablo Foothills Regional Park Diablo Foothills Regional Park is a regional park of the East Bay Regional Park District. It is located in Contra Costa County, in the East Bay region of northern California. Geography The park lies in the Diablo Foothills of the northern Diabl ...

and Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area. Included in Shell Ridge are: * Old Borges Ranch * Howe Homestead Park

Lime Ridge

Lime Ridge is 1,226 acres and has 25 miles of trails. It is situated between Walnut Creek and

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other words Arts and media * ''Concord'' (video game), a defunct 2024 first-person sh ...

, adjacent to Mount Diablo State Park.

Limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

was quarried at this site from 1905 to 1946. Botanist Mary Bowerman found

Mount Diablo buckwheat ''Eriogonum truncatum'', the Mount Diablo buckwheat, is a small pink wildflower, believed to have been extinct since 1936 until its rediscovery in 2005. The species is only known to live on Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County, northern Californ ...

at this location.

Acalanes Ridge

Acalanes Ridge is 201 acres and has 4 miles of trails. Its peak is the site of large concrete arrows once used by the Transcontinental Airway System.

Sugarloaf

Sugarloaf is 177 acres and has 3 miles of trails. It includes a ridge-top trail,

black walnut ''Juglans nigra'', the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to central and eastern North America, growing mostly in riparian zones. Black walnut is susceptible to thousand can ...

grove, picnic area, bathrooms, ranger station.

Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation

The Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation is a nonprofit organization tasked with restoring and maintaining the open space land. Projects have included planting native

oak trees An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

and native grasses, and restoring

California quail The California quail (''Callipepla californica''), also known as the California valley quail or Valley quail, is a small ground-dwelling bird in the New World quail family. These birds have a curving crest, '' plume'' or topknot made of six fea ...

habitat.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation
* ''

Mercury News Mercury most commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the closest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a chemical element * Mercury (mythology), a Roman deity Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Mercury (toy manufacturer), ...

'' article
Immersed in nature at Walnut Creek's Shell Ridge Open Space
* Video
The Saving of Walnut Creek Open Space
Parks in Contra Costa County, California Walnut Creek, California Geography of Contra Costa County, California