Mission Peak Informations

Mission Peak Regional Preserve is a public park east of Fremont, California, operated by the East Bay Regional Park District. It is the northern summit on a ridge that includes Mount Allison and Monument Peak. Mission Peak has symbolic importance, and is depicted on the logo of the City of Fremont.

This park borders and overlooks Silicon Valley, and is popular with local hikers, bicyclists, sightseers from the Bay Area, and tourists from beyond for its vista and strenuous climb. The "Mission Peeker" marker pole at the summit is the most famous and geo-tagged landmark in the City of Fremont: a stream of sightseers takes photographs alongside the landmark. The Stanford Avenue entrance receives up to two thousand visitors per day on weekends. Visitor numbers surged after 2010, and it is the most popular attraction in Fremont.

A full six-mile (10 km) round-trip ascent on a popular trail takes two to five hours for walkers, one to one-and-a-half hours for bicyclists and runners. Difficulty with the midday sun, such as dehydration, is common. Guidelines recommend carrying two liters of water per person, extra water for dogs, and sun protection. Signs prohibit off-trail shortcuts which can cause erosion, and some shortcuts have barbed wire fencing to reduce trespassing.

Three trails climb the mountain's northern and western faces. The Hidden Valley Trail which draws the lion's share of visitors and the Peak Meadow Trail both ascend the western face from Stanford Avenue. They have an elevation change of 2,100 ft (640 m), with panoramic views of the Bay Area but are sun exposed with little shade. The Stanford Avenue entrance has water and restrooms. No food, water bottles or supplies are sold at the park. The Park District is directing visitors to the Mission Peak Trail which starts at Ohlone College. This has an elevation change of 2,100 ft (640 m), and is 10% longer than the Hidden Valley Trail. The Peak Trail (Ohlone College) entrance has restrooms and a water fountain.

Paid (though free on Sunday) parking at Ohlone College is not congested, nor are the miles-long pedestrian trails inside the park proper. Most access the park from one of two nearby freeways, 680 and 880. The Warm Springs BART station (part of the Silicon Valley BART extension), and AC Transit buses offer service to Ohlone College and the intersection of Mission Blvd.

The two least popular approaches originate from Sunol Regional Wilderness and Ed R. Levin County Park in Milpitas. The Sunol route climbs 2,200 ft (670 m) over five miles (8 km), a gentler grade than Hidden Valley Trail which climbs 2,100 ft (640 m) over three miles (5 km). The Levin County Park route first climbs 2,200 ft (670 m) from the Park HQ to Monument Peak over three miles (5 km), and from there Mission Peak is another three miles (5 km) to the north along a mostly flat trail. This route passes beside Mount Allison, the tallest of the three peaks. Mount Allison is about 170 ft (52 m) higher than Mission Peak, but not open to the public. Monument Peak is 2,594 ft (791 m).

Depending on weather conditions, Bay Area peaks including Mount Diablo, Mount Hamilton, and Mount Tamalpais can be seen. Furthermore, the peak provides good views of Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco, Fremont, and Newark. On very clear days, the Sierra Nevada range are visible 100 miles (160 km) to the east.

Mission Peak connects to a network of regional trails and contains part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, which is under construction and has gaps to the north of Mission Peak. The Eagle Spring Backpack campsite is just east of the summit.

Sculptor and park ranger Leonard Page along with a crew of six erected the iconic "Mission Peeker" on December 27, 1990. The pole is over six feet (1.8 m) in height, and the foundation is two feet (0.6 m) deep with 120 pounds (54 kg) of concrete.

The sculptor's purpose was to promote environmental awareness. The sticks on the pole represent each pillar of environmental recycling. Sealed inside the steel tube are a crystal with traditional cultural uses, an Ohlone charmstone replica, a bottle of 1990 zinfandel wine whose yeast overshoot represents world population trends, and five time capsules with articles and photographs. The time capsules were intended to be opened in a century or more, after 2090, and focus on rainforest preservation, AIDS, and homelessness. They offer images from popular culture of Bart Simpson, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Gary Larson's Far Side cartoons.

The cultural meaning of monuments often change, and the use of this artifact has evolved over a quarter century. Though designed in 1988 as an "interpretive post", with sight tubes pointing to other Bay Area landmarks and cities, the "peeker" function has since been rendered archaic and its environmental message is not widely known.

The marker now functions as a standalone cultural monument, and draws thousands of weekly sightseers and tourists that make it the most photographed artifact in southern Alameda County and the top tourist attraction in Fremont.Snapchat has a geofilter image of the pole representing Fremont.

The pole has become a contested cultural symbol. In 2014, iconoclastic local residents, the Recreation Department of the City of Fremont and the Stewardship Division of EBRPD discussed razing the landmark to dissuade sightseers.

Controversy surrounds access to Mission Peak. Parking is congested near the free 40-space Stanford Avenue lot. Most visitors enter there, and the congestion spills over to nearby public streets on weekends. The East Bay Regional Park District cut park service hours (formerly 5 am to 10 pm) by 30% in late 2014, in part to divert visitors away from the Stanford Avenue entrance. The Stanford opening was delayed to 6:30 am instead of the former 5:00 am, generating a crowd of sunrise viewers who assemble at the gate before it opens on weekends.

In 2015 they discussed further restrictions including a per person daily use (entry) fee, parking permits to restrict public street parking while favoring local residents, parking fees to reduce parking congestion, a dog fee to reduce visits by dog owners and demolition of the iconic summit pole. EBRPD proposed a larger parking lot at the Stanford entrance in 2012; and, as of 2015, completion was expected in 2018.

The city temporarily restricted visitor parking on streets near the Stanford Avenue trail-head in late 2016. Residential permits are required on Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays in front of houses, near open fields, and near empty lots. One hundred spaces on Weibel Dr are restricted, not fronting houses. The restrictions are temporary, slated to expire on July 7, 2020.

The temporary restriction of park operating hours and street parking, and the parking expansion have generated controversy. The number of visitors dropped significantly prior to 2017, and park activists linked the drop to the parking restrictions and to the cutback of park hours. Standard operating hours were 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and the temporary operating hours are slated to expire in July 2020. More than 1,500 parking tickets were issued in the first year, and the city collected over $100,000 in fines.

In 2016, the park district approved plans to construct 300 new parking spaces near the main entrance. However, residents filed suit against the parking expansion on environmental grounds, after petitioning to restrict parking on public streets. The same law firm filed the 2016 action which closed the Regional Park at Vargas Plateau for nearly a year.

Mission Peak Regional Preserve is a popular location for hang gliding and paragliding.

The Wings of Rogallo Northern California Hang Gliding Association Inc. has been licensed by the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) to administer hang gliding and paragliding at Mission Peak since 1983.

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