Where to Go Hiking

Parent Q&A

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  • Can anyone recommend regional or state parks in the greater Bay Area that have open bathroom facilities right now? The official park websites state which parks are open, but don’t specify which have bathrooms open. 

    In the last month I’ve visited these parks and found bathrooms available:

    Kennedy Grove

    Tilden Inspiration Point (pit toilet, no running water)

    Sibley 

    Point Pinole

    And couldn’t find open bathrooms at:

    Alvarado Park 

    Chabot 

    Getting out for hikes (with masks and proper social distancing) has been so helpful during this time, so any info on other parks with functioning bathrooms would be wonderful!

    Thanks!
     

    We went to Point Reyes this week and visited Abbot's Lagoon and Bear Valley, and both had bathrooms. Beautiful hiking!

    There is at least one bathroom open at Redwood Regional Park in Oakland. It was nearish to the Redwood Gate entrance. 

    Muir Woods National Monument has multiple functional bathrooms.

    We've found bathrooms open (during regular posted hours) at:

    Muir Beach

    Limantour Beach

    China Beach (Marin)

    San Pablo Resevoir

    Point Pinole - Dot Family Marsh lot

    Various parks on Bay Farm Island

    Most of these are porta potties or pit toilets, but at least it seems as if more bathrooms are open rather than closed now.

    The regional parks website has a page for Covid-19 Park & Trail Updates. From there, you can click on a Restrooms link that lists open restrooms for each park. 

    https://www.ebparks.org/parks/restrooms/default.htm

    I don't know how much you can trust this info. At Coyote Hills in mid-July we parked near the toilets that were supposed to be open. When we set out and three hours later when we returned, a sign said that they were "closed for cleaning."

    Lake Chabot (southern end of Chabot regional park) has pit toilets. No running water anywhere for hand washing. The toilets near the parking lot can be disgusting, but the ones that dot the west shore paved trail see less use. The park gets crowded on weekend afternoons.

    Redwood Regional -- the two bathroom a short distance from the canyon meadow staging area parking is open. There's a sink. The other bathrooms further along Stream Trail are closed.