City Hiking Trails

Trail Easements

Lafayette is surrounded by beautiful hills and open space.  Trails provide a way for citizens to directly access and interact with this world, as well as provide transportation alternatives.  Lafayette has seven City-managed trails plus a trail network in the Community Park — about 16 miles of trails.  Additionally, Lafayette has the benefit of East Bay Regional Park District trails – the Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail, and many other trails in our surrounding hills.  The East Bay Municipal Utility District Lafayette Reservoir property has a paved trail around the water and an upper dirt trail around the reservoir rim.  These trails are used and enjoyed extensively and provide a wonderful benefit to the Community, especially for those living close to trails.

The purpose of the City’s trails is to link neighborhoods, to provide alternative routes to public facilities, and to connect to the regional and other Lamorinda trail networks.  The City, through its Trails Master Plan process, has identified new trail opportunities that build on what already exists.  However, to achieve this fully developed vision, trail access rights need to be obtained – in many cases on private properties.  Some new trails can be added as part of a subdivision process as provided by State law, while others need trail easements on specific private parcels. These easements are obtained through discussions and agreements with the property owners and are formalized in a Trail Easement Agreement.  The City policy is to negotiate the specific locations and conditions that apply to such easements.  This linked brochure further explains the benefits of these easements and answers questions that property owners may have.  

Lamorinda Trail Loop

In 2005, a detailed inventory of trails - existing, planned, and imagined – was completed by a committee called The Lamorinda Trails Connections Committee. The committee was established by agreement of the Orinda, Moraga, and Lafayette City Councils in Spring 2002. The goal of the Committee was to create a comprehensive trail system throughout Lamorinda.

While the Committee members were taking inventory of the trails located in their communities, they discovered there already existed a continuous route linking the three cities via a 17.5 mile loop. Hence, the three cities supported a $25,000 grant proposal for way-finding signs and trail markers to better identify the Lamorinda Trail Loop. Agreements were finalized with BART and EBRPD for placement of signs on their properties and the three city councils approved the new signage. On August 10, 2006, the Lamorinda Trail Loop was officially opened. Maps of the loop are currently available at the Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda Community Centers or download a copy of the map.

Trails Master Plan

Trails Master Plan

Trails Implementation Plan

Trail Resources 

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