Oakland has hundreds of stairways and paths. It doesn’t have straight street grids like Chicago but roads that, like ramen noodles, twist and curl across the cityscape. When I’m not feeling up to a trail run, I explore any one of the city’s built-in strolls.

There’s one walk right near my place in the Glenview. It’s a loop that winds through Glendome Circle, a quiet lane on a ledge of land above Trestle Glen Road. Both the Glenview and Crocker Highlands neighborhoods overlap on its horseshoe route. A block away is another short but sweet trek. It’s a public path called Elsinore Walk, which opens onto Park Blvd. just steps away from the bus stop. Unlike most Oakland’s paths I’ve seen, this route has ample signage:

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This could be determined by its access to Park Blvd. For more than 50 years, the #18 streetcar ran along here (even when it was still 4th Ave.). Now Elsinore Walk is a great shortcut to the AC Transit 18 and the casual carpool on Hollywood Ave.

The path is a nice entry to the Glenview’s northeast shoulder. And like so many of the paths here, flower vines and tended beds adorn both sides. Elsinore has a garden variety of lavender, daisies, wild poppies and these gorgeous blooms:

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A number of passageways lead off the walk. Some are weathered gates with rope latches. Others are side doorways and recessed windows. One fence warns about a dog, but I didn’t hear barking the last time I passed through. Much of the city noise from Park seemed far away, in fact. Even at a slowed pace I reached the last stairwell too soon.

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From the peak of Glendome you’ll catch a nice Bay view. (Never mind the gargantuan PG&E towers and substation hardware.) The yards have a wild, East Bay style. Some of the Spanish colonial homes have a rugged edge, reminiscent of Broadway Terrace before the 1991 fire. Asphalt rolls along Glendome in layered patches; on one side it drops off into what some Oaklanders know as “Indian Gulch.” Sometime after the Ohlones lived there, and before the buses took over in 1948, the B line streetcar ran along the canyon, or Trestle Glen Road.

It’s also a nice excursion after dinner at Marzano. The success of so many gourmets restaurants have parking real estate on the strip at a premium. Diners may find that leaving their car at the mouth of Elsinore is a great way to walk off a meal. It’s a little over a mile to and from the commercial district. You might call it the Elsinore Loop:

  • Start in the Glenview commerical district, head up the hill past Wellington St.
  • Across from Dolores Ave. at the 18 bus stop, turn left onto Elsinore Walk.
  • The path lets out at Edgewood Ave. and continues through to San Sebastian Ave.
  • At the bottom of the stairway, jog left to follow Elsinore Ave. to El Centro Ave.
  • Make a right and climb some 87 feet to Glendome Circle. Make a left toward the towers.
  • Wind around Glendome and return to El Centro Ave. and back out to Park.

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