1968 trail map of Joaquin Miller, Dimond and Leona Heights Parks

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I found this Trail Map, Oakland Park Department in newspaper archives, on newspapers.com. It's from the Fremont News Register, June 15, 1968, Page 38. It's part of a twelve-page supplement called the Alameda County Weekender, focusing on the Sunday, June 16 Open Forum and Horse Show of the Metropolitan Horsemen's Association, including lots of photos from past events. 

Trail Map, Oakland Park Department - Principal Hiking and Riding Trails

Most of the trails documented and shown are in the top right corner, in Joaquin Miller Park. The map is rotated, so north-west is up. What caught my attention is the differences in the trail names, and in the differences in the trails themselves. I used this image to georeference it on top of a modern, OpenStreetMap. I then exported it to a 300dpi image and annotated it in red. You can see that, here on my blog, or maybe better via a google drive link, where you can really zoom in at high resolution. I think uploading it to blogger causes it to be resampled, i.e. it shrinks, and loses the high fidelity of the 300dpi original, which is 32.8MB. If you are a QGIS user, I could also share the original files with you, let me know if you want them.

The map, georeferenced on OpenStreetMap

This is a hand-drawn map. It has some fidelity. It looks like the drawer traced some things, like the county border from an existing map, then drew the rest by hand. Georeferencing a hand-drawn map is always going to produce weird effects, but between the original and this version, you can get the drift. Here's the text at the bottom, with numbers added to match the hand-drawn map, and also added in red above:

Principal Hiking and Riding Trails
1 Sausal Creek Trail - Dimond Park to Mountain Boulevard: 2 Sausal View Trail... Entrance and Bridgeview Drive to Mountain Boulevard: 3 Palo Seco Redwood Trail... Mountain Boulevard to Meadow Picnic Area: 4 Sunset View Trail... Castle Drive to Cinderella, Girl Scout Cabin to Meadow Picnic Area: 5 Woodminster-Cinderella Trail... From Sanborn to Girl Scout Cabin: 6 Laurel Hilltop Trail... Skirts hillside north of Sanborn Drive: 7 Cinderella Chaparral Trail... Sunset View Trail to Horsemen's Arena and Skyline Boulevard at Fire Station: 8 Castle-Skyline Trail... From Skyline Fire Station to Castle Drive: 9 Sunrise Trail... From Skyline Point to Skyline below Sequoia Point: 10 Skyline Fern Ravine Trail... From Sequoia Picnic Area to Meadow Picnic Area: 11 Sequoia Point Trail... Meadow Picnic Area to No. 12 Trail, from Point to Skyline: 12 Sequoia Bayview Trail. Joaquin Miller Road to Cinderella Trail below Horsemen's Trail: 13 Leona Skyline Trail... Mountain Boulevard up Leona Creek to Upper Leona Trail, thence to Portuguese Flat [Where Merritt College is now. - MF] and Skyline. The beautiful, cool, enchantment of the Oakland Parks run like a magic green ribbon of primeval wonderland through the mountain and valley country just beyond the crowded East Bay cities with their hundreds of thousands of people, beyond thundering freeways filled with cars and trucks. The parks offer visitors the serenity and peace of primitive wilderness country. The hiker and the horseman can fill another world beyond the curving horizon of ancient hills.

There is a disparity between the names then and the names now. Here's the above list, and its modern name:
  1. Sausal Creek Trail - same
  2. Sausal View Trail - Bridgeview Trail
  3. Palo Seco Redwood Trail - Palos Colorados Trail
  4. Sunset View Trail - Sunset Trail
  5. Woodminster-Cinderella Trail - I think this is lower Sinawik Trail now.
  6. Laurel Hilltop Trail - I think this is upper Sinawik trail now.
  7. Cinderella Chaparral Trail - Chaparral trail. More below.
  8. Castle-Skyline Trail - Castle Park Trail
  9. Sunrise Trail - This appears to be a version of Big Trees Trail that went from Skyline Point (What's that?) and terminated at Sequoia Point. There is a branch of Big Trees that does that.
  10. Skyline Fern Ravine Trail - Fern Ravine Trail. It's hard to see, but the drawn version appears to do a jog to the south, around the "(10)" on the map that the actual trail doesn't do.
  11. Sequoia Point Trail - Sunset trail I believe, now rerouted.
  12. Leona Skyline Trail - York Trail, I think, but maybe McDonnell Trail
There are a few interesting things about the 1968 map that are different from now. See the red arrows with letters next to them. Here's what I see:
  1. I don't think that trail exists anymore, or maybe it's McDonnell
  2. I don't think that trail exists anymore,
  3. This is fascinating. Parts of that loop might still be part of the Big Trees Trail. Note that it's solid lines, not dotted, which implies asphalt. There is an asphalt road along the top of Joaquin Miller Park which still exists, and is the remnants of the private road from before Skyline Boulevard was built in the 1920s. I'm guessing it had a loop that doesn't exist anymore. Hmm, will check lidar...
  4. Chaparral has a different alignment now. This older version bends to the left - viewed from the person descending it - and rejoins Sunset further east than the modern version. There is a little trail off to the left of the modern version, right about where these two differ.
  5. There is no Cinderella trail in 1968.
  6. There was a Sequoia Point and a Skyline Point, who knew. I remember an old sign for Sequoia Point that was still in place, on the east side of Skyline until the 2000s. Trail #9, Sunrise Trail might be an old trail I remember from the 2000s, that connected with Sequoia Point, the car pull-out.
  7. The fire station was moved from 10060 Skyline Boulevard to 13150 Skyline Boulevard sometime around 1960. It was replaced with the Metropolitan Horsemen's Association clubhouse sometime in the 1960s.
  8. The Warren Freeway, AKA Hwy 13 was completed to Hwy 580 in 1967, but this map still shows it transitioning to its predecessor, Mountain Boulevard.
  9. No Bishop's Walk Trail

The Trails


Here are some clippings in descending chronological, naming many of these trails, or discussing their construction:

Oakland Tribune, September 3, 1975, Page  3. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune/191966659/ : accessed February 23, 2026), clip page  by user morganfletcher


Oakland Tribune, February 24, 1967, Page  40. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-trails-serviced-in-oakla/26482022/ : accessed February 23, 2026), clip page for Trails Serviced in Oakland Parks by user morganfletcher

Oakland Tribune, August 11, 1954, Page 25. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-joaquin-miller-park-trai/13056780/ : accessed February 23, 2026), clip page for Joaquin Miller Park trails by user morganfletcher

The Oakland Post Enquirer, May 21, 1948, Page  16. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oakland-post-enquirer-variety-show-t/136278259/ : accessed February 23, 2026), clip page for Variety Show to Aid Girl Scout Cabin Drive by user morganfletcher

Oakland Tribune, May 17, 1940, Page 33. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-cornerstone-for-miller-t/161653035/ : accessed February 23, 2026), clip page for Cornerstone For Miller Theater Laid by user morganfletcher

The Oakland Post Enquirer, May 24, 1932, Page  3. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oakland-post-enquirer/191965991/ : accessed February 23, 2026), clip page  by user morganfletcher

The upper portion of the park - roughly east and above Sequoia Bayview trail - used to be known as Sequoia Park, or Sequoia Mountain Park.

Oakland Tribune, June 13, 1926, Page 73. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune-skyline-play-today-rip/20512562/ : accessed February 23, 2026), clip page for SKYLINE PLAY TODAY; RIP TO APPEAR ON THE HILL by user morganfletcher

The Oakland Post Enquirer, August 12, 1922, Page  7. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oakland-post-enquirer-ideal-outing-l/134124187/ : accessed February 23, 2026), clip page for IDEAL OUTING LAND AND AUTO CAMP SITE AT CITY'S VERY DOOR by user morganfletcher


Oakland Enquirer, July 3, 1920, Page  16. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-enquirer-camp-cinderella-to-open/134125387/ : accessed February 23, 2026), clip page for Camp Cinderella To Open today by user morganfletcher

The San Francisco Examiner, June 9, 1895, Page 24. via Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-a-bicycle-tri/45713982/ : accessed February 23, 2026), clip page for A BICYCLE TRIP TO THE HOME OF JOAQUIN MILLER TO BLOG by user morganfletcher

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