El Cerrito, CA Outdoor Activities

A chalky hand swings over the top of the wall, grasping onto the red hold embedded in its surface. After a tense moment, a second hand swings up, pulling the rest of the climber's body up with it. Having successfully scaled 18-foot top-out boulder, the climber scurries back down the wall she has just conquered, swapping places with her spotter below.

This cycle repeats throughout the day at Bridges Rock Gym, spurred on by a crew of climbing enthusiasts and instructors who initiate people into the low-altitude sport of bouldering. That form of climbing emphasizes solving climbing problems and chasing archaeologists through ancient caves. The gym unleashes visitors' inner mountain goats with their well-maintained climbing facilities, including an overhanging indoor-climbing cave that thoroughly punishes muscles into growth and top-rope climbing walls that help beginners get the hang of scaling the crag.

While specializing in the art of ascents, Bridges also bolsters patron fitness. Yoga and fitness classes, as well as a fleet of cardio equipment, facilitate heart-strengthening workouts. Waves of free WiFi allow mountaineers uninterrupted access to videos of their pet rocks, best enjoyed with a grilled sandwich or all-fruit smoothie in the gym's organic café and lounge.

An intro-to-sailing lesson with OCSC is designed both for beginners who can't tell a mermaid from Ethel Merman and for more-intermediate students of the stern and aft looking to perfect their technique. Skilled and certified instructors teach each lesson, while a low teacher-to-student ratio ensures plenty of attention and instruction for all involved. Your lesson will focus on practical training, creating a prime opportunity to get some on-the-water experience beneath your sails. Over the course of two hours, you'll be exposed to different roles and positions on the yacht, including the position of steely-eyed helmsman. By the end of the salt-sprayed session, you won't be a certified skipper, but you'll have had a sublime time and tasted the sailing experience, which always tastes like a combination of warm brownies and cold milk.

UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley’s first plants sprouted in a modestly sized garden on campus in the 1870s, and in the 1890s, the plot became an official garden dedicated to hosting a living collection of native plants. Since then, the nonprofit garden has expanded to 34 acres in Strawberry Canyon and planted more than 13,000 different types of plants from around the world, including endangered cacti, redwoods, and a significant collection of native Californian plants. Given the garden’s vastness, its informative tours and programs offer a handy alternative to exploring alone, which always carries the risk of stumbling into the carnivorous, fire-breathing species of poison ivy.

Edible Excursions' gourmands lead visitors on informative walking tours of some of the Bay Area's most coveted culinary sights, earning a mention in the Travel Tips section of USA Today. In addition to previously working for Gourmet magazine, founder Lisa Rogovin honed her palate during a seven-month excursion across five continents, skipping only Antarctica and Texas. However, her passion remains rooted in the diverse, locally grown offerings of San Francisco. She says, "There isn't a month in the year where the Bay Area isn't growing something fun and delicious to use in the kitchen."

Edible Excursions' many tours embrace this passion by leading visitors through farmers' markets and restaurant kitchens throughout San Francisco, Marin County, and Berkeley. Local chefs and gustatory artisans impart insight on their methods and inspirations along the way, while occasionally satiating tour-goers with small samples of their culinary masterpieces.

Dan Bohn of Capt. Dan Classic Sails is a US Coast Guard–certified master mariner sailing captain who charters sunset and daytime sails aboard the Feral, a 40-foot double-ended wooden sloop. Captain Dan’s commitment to staying as true to the boat’s origins as possible has resulted in a nautically nostalgic vessel that is lit by a few navigation lights, several oil lamps, and the gleam from Poseidon’s eyes. The ship cuts through the water of San Francisco Bay toward sights such as Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge during his BYOB sails.

Seated in your kayak, you're surrounded by cerulean waters that stretch out into the horizon. To your left, the San Francisco skyline looms in the shimmering afternoon sun. You drift by a raucous Giants game, a village of houseboats, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Led through undulating waters by American Canoe Association– and Wilderness First Aid–certified guides, San Francisco Kayak & Adventures' nautical tour groups traverse the San Francisco Bay or Sausalito waterfront during the day, at sunset, and under the light of the full moon. The guides lead their groups through calm costal waters in sturdy, closed-deck tandem kayaks, which keep legs dry and don't require typical Flintstone-style paddling. The guides regale their group with area history while pointing out local marine life. They only shepherd about eight paddlers to keep tours intimate and personal and customize paddling instruction to the ability levels of the group.

Guides also help visitors explore the natural world on land during hiking excursions between redwood trees in Muir Woods, along a coastal trail in the Tennessee Valley, and past ghost-town buildings at China Camp Village. To expand visitors' wilderness exposure, they also lead adventures such as sailing, rock-climbing, cycling in the city, horseback riding on the beach, and sleeping in phone booths.