Customer Reviews

Best Hikes With Dogs: Bay Area & Beyond

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have yet to have a hike from this book go smoothly. I live in the north bay and all of the directions to the hiking destinations are only if you are coming from the south. Often times the exit they give is only accessable if you are coming from the south. I drove out to one of the hikes and there were signs everywhere saying no dogs allowed. Also the trail directions are very vague and sometimes inaccurate. I have wasted a lot of gas and even more time with the inaccurate driving and trail directions. Basically this book was a waste of money for me.

I love hiking with my dogs off-leash. This book has been a great resource for me. I just moved to California and don't know the area all that well. This book is full of great hikes in the bay area and northern california. The table at the beginning of the book is especially helpful as it lists all the hikes and makes note of their length, difficulty, off-leash status, and accessibilty to water. I almost hate to write this review as increased foot and paw traffic on these trails increases the abuse potential. Only people with well-trained, friendly dogs should attempt off-leash hikes. If your dog is not friendly or well behaved, it's best to stick to the many, many leash-required hiking trails.

My wife and I moved to the Bay Area about a month ago and were excited to hike all the great parks nearby until we found out htat most of them are dog un-friendly. This book offers tons of hikes that (according to them) are dog friendly.

We took its advice last weekend and hiked the reservoirs at Alpine Lake last weekend. The book states that it a good place for dogs to be off-leash and to let them swim, well, both of these are against the rules of the park (especially the swimming since this is a drinking-water supply reservoir). the directions they gave in the book to find the hike were also quite terrible. Save yourself some grief and use a GPS or [...] to get there.

Bottom line:
The book will help you find place that are dog friendly, but that's where the helpfulness ends.

Contains an amazing number of trails you can take your dog to, even unleashed in probably the most dog unfriendly state in the country (California). Since most parks and trails in northern California prohibit dogs even on leash, this book will save you a lot of research. The main weakness is the lack of trails in the South Bay. Of course, since this is the most dog phobic part of California, it's not surprising that there is not much for dogs here.

If you like to go places with your dog in the Bay Area, you should have this book.