Rockville Hills - Feb.  '26 

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Over the last decade of hiking with the group, Rockville Hills Regional Park, in Fairfield, Ca., has became one of our favorite places, especially nice from late winter to early summer. 

Jean joined me on sort notice on Saturday Feb. 14, to try out some new trails (my friend Andrew from Oakland was not able to attend).  At 10 am we found no parking available at the main lot, but just up the road was a space.

To the southeast (from the park's main trail) is a hill with a prominent rock outcropping, as shown in the first photo. We walked above the rocks on the Upper Tilley trail, but, not so much as a foot path was seen leading to an overlook of some kind.   

On the way back to the trailhead via the Lower Tilley trail, once we were below the rocks, dense Oak/Buckeye woods on the steep hill above blotted out almost everything & again we found no access paths. 

We also saw early wildflowers, including the largest distribution of Indian Warrior either of us had ever seen. It is always a surprise to run into this plant. 

We also encountered an unexpectedly steep downhill section, walking on, or through, large rocks. It was challenging, at times needing all fours.  

Once back at the starting point (carpark), we took a low elevation path heading north, following the park boundary and eventually curving around the hills, until we were on the west side of the park, heading south. It was a great loop walk.  

	the hill to the south w/ outcropping		Indian Warrior		Manzanita trunk
		Milkmaids		Scarlet fritillary
	rock flow		general competition		mini-Big-Trucks, see note
		trails & spring grass
			near the end of the walk

note 1 - Seeing mini-Big-Trucks on what looks like ancient flowing rocks was a surprise, and the operator guys were intense. Just after I took this photo, one of the trucks higher up lost its purchase, tumbled downhill, and took out two others, more like mini-Big-Truck bowling !     

A second technical challenge today was climbing up the short Cascade Trail, with boulders of all sizes and many huge steps, and a grade of 20% in a few places. We took our time and in 15 minutes we gained at least 200 ft. I was glad I'd brought gloves w/good grips and Jean had some, too. 

While driving home later we compared notes & agreed it is a good sign that we can still do this kind of technical stuff ! 

Fyi, the alternate to the Cascade trail is a series of three steep switchbacks on the Unknown Trail (which we all took on the next visit).  

On the second visit to Rockville Hills, on Weds., Feb 25, only four of us ventured out: Kathy, Frank, Jean, & me. As  predicted, a weak storm system left the area well before we arrived. The air was very fresh and we encountered no strong winds. 

The walk was in hilly terrain, and bare Oaks & spring grass were everywhere. We were on the Quarry, Unknown, Jockey, Middle Mystic, and one or two main access trails w/o names. 

	heading north at the start		oddball geology, again
		Manzanita
	Solano County scenery				Wavy-leaf soap plant
		monster Oak, near the lunch place		return route
			Blue dicks, a Brodiaea		almost back

On AllTrails this is the Rockville Regional Park Loop Trail, 5+ miles long with 600 ft. of gain and I think we all enjoyed seeing some new parts of the park today.   

Near the most western part of the walk, and not far from the switchbacks, was the Twisted Tree trail, familiar from a  previous visit, and, we found the picnic table, just as three women hikers (about our age) from Sac County were leaving.  

We took the main trails back to the cars, and were back on the freeway at 2:30 pm & home by 4pm. 

What a great day out ! 

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Postscript - besides AllTrails, good maps can be found below -

Solano Resource Conservation District, copy this link - solanorcd.org/rockville-hills-regional-park.html   

City of Fairfield, use - fairfield.ca.gov  (I'm not using actual links bcz they are often blocked. )

Both maps are easy to search, and "rockville' alone gets you right there.