Wilcox Station Staging Area

The Wilcox Station Staging Area serves as the parking for the former Wilcox Station, now part of the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. The station was once part of the Sacramento Northern Railroad, an electric railway that operated between Oakland and Chico. It's worth noting that the trails in the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve are designated for hiking only.

The Wilcox Station Staging Area parking and trailhead, is near the former Wilcox Station, part of the Sacramento Northern Railroad en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_Northern_Railway , an electric train that ran for 183 miles from Oakland all the way to Chico. Trains traveled through the one mile long “Redwood Peak Tunnel” from Shepherd Canyon on the Oakland side, before emerging in the canyon near the hairpin turn on Pinehurst Road. A 1917 map shows the very first stop as Eastport Station (eastern portal) and the second stop as Wilcox Station. The tiny town of Eastport still shows up in Wikipedia and on Google Maps!
The 250+ acres that have been appended to Sibley were settled by the McCosker family in the 1870s, initially as a ranch, and later as a paving and quarry operation from the 1950s-70s. lamorindahikes.com/tag/wilcox-station
The trail is part of strategically-located acres that were added to East Bay protected wildlands through negotiation with a succession of Wilder developers (built 235 homesites orindawilder.com ) over a 20-year period, with Golden Gate Audubon playing a large part in the successful outcome. The extensive grading and drainage that were needed to support roads and construction of the first proposed project in the '80s would have destroyed existing creeks, wetlands and seeps, and numerous old growth trees, a variety of habitats home to species including endangered California red-legged frogs and Alameda whip snakes, as well as majestic golden eagles. The opposition to the development of the Gateway project was led by a well-organized and persistent group of Orinda residents called Save Open Space - Gateway Valley, several of them also members of GGAS. In 2002, Farallon Capital Management acquired the development rights to the Gateway area. Farallon approached GGAS's executive director, Arthur Feinstein, and asked him to bring SOS into discussions toward a compromise. The efforts were successful and the responsibility for the 1,300 protected acres was subsequently assumed by the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the East Bay Regional Park District, and a small Geologic Hazard Abatement District funded by Wilder homeowners. lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1121/print/Golden-Gate-Audubon-Society-celebrates-100th-anniversary-near-Orinda.html

Wilcox Staging Area parking lot and the trails accessed from there are all currently closed due to a major construction project.