Donner Canyon Loop Named Contra Costa's Best Hiking Trail

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA — A trail loop in Mount Diablo State Park offers the best hiking in Contra Costa County, according to updated rankings published by the San Francisco Chronicle. Researchers at the newspaper crunched the numbers on 850,000 AllTrails reviews for thousands of hiking routes in the Bay Area, charting hikers' favorite trails in each of the nine counties.

"Our list is largely based on [the] average rating score for routes with at least 100 ratings," the Chronicle explains. "We also considered trail difficulty in specific cases: We excluded a few highly rated walks that are longer than 12 miles and considered very challenging — ones appropriate for only the hardest of hardcore hikers and runners."

In Contra Costa County, near the town of Clayton, the six-mile Back Creek, Falls and Donner Canyon Loop ranked highest with a 4.67 rating among 285 reviews.

"The first couple miles are a nice but pedestrian walk through rocky terrain where you'll find good birdwatching and may even spot a snake," the Chronicle's Dan Kopf writes. "But then about halfway up the climb you turn onto the Middle Trail section and the hike turns spectacular."

In close second was the Camille to Sulpher Creek trail, near Alamo, with a 4.65 out of 393 reviews.

>> Check out the full trail rankings via the San Francisco Chronicle.