Sunol Regional Park is one of the East Bay's best autumn destinations. Tucked in a remote corner among golden hills, the park offers lots of wide-open country with an impressive variety of trees. Even on a short stroll along Alameda Creek near the park's visitor center, you'll see maple, sycamore, and willow adding to the season's kaleidoscope. Get on the Canyon View Trail for a longer walk and arrive at Little Yosemite Valley's towering rock formations, cliffs, and forested hillsides. (Make a satisfying three-mile loop by returning on the Camp Ohlone Road.) Enjoy the golds and browns of the park's many oak trees, and keep an eye out for the most impressive performer of them all: Toxicodendron diversilobum—uh huh, poison oak. Its bright red foliage is pure fall genius; just don't touch! Sunol is filled with wildlife, too, including black-tailed deer and some forty bird species. Don't let this golden opportunity pass you by.

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