Chaparral Peak via Stonewall-Panoramic Trail

Chaparral Peak via Stonewall-Panoramic Trail is a 7.1-kilometer out-and-back trail with spectacular wildflowers found in Berkeley, California. It is classed as challenging. Hiking, running, and wildlife visits are the most popular activities on the trail. This pathway is also suitable for dogs.

Start your journey from the Stonewall Road Trailhead. The steep fire road is well-marked, always rutted and rocky, with a few gentle flats but primarily a steep gradient. You’ll come across four benches, each with a spectacular view. The last stretch, just before you reach Panoramic Road’s tarmac, is the steepest, as well as the rockiest, rutted, and loose. It is necessary to wear shoes with adequate rubber and tread. Bring hiking poles if you have trouble keeping your balance.

When you reach the pavement of Panoramic Road, head up and right, not down and left, to continue to Chaparral Peak, Grizzly Peak Road, or Vollmer Peak. The pavement ends in less than a hundred yards at an isolated private driveway, and the only way to continue is to make a hard right into another fire road, which, despite its popularity, has no name.

Follow this fire route all the way to Grizzly Peak Road, a major roadway that runs through the Berkeley hills. The fire road follows the ridgeline alongside a row of tall Eucalyptus trees from the end of the pavement, splits briefly at the fourth and final bench beside an open area, then rejoins a little distance up to ascend steeply and straightly a hundred feet in the first of three big climbs. It’s worth noting that the first of three short connecting lefthand paths at the bottom of this ascent leads to the Upper Jordon Fire Trail, which rounds Strawberry Canyon and is long and nearly flat.

The fire road passes another open space with a solitary Oaktree instead of a bench after the steep and straight trek up the hill, and then falls gradually, then more steeply to the base of the second steep portion. It’s not obvious unless you look at a map, but the fire road and the Upper Jordon fire trail are extremely close together at this point, less than a hundred feet apart, and you can simply clamber left and down through the trees to the Upper Jordon Fire Trail if you want to.