SF Bay Area Dog Wonderland

[McDave]

My son wanted to move some stuff out of a storage locker, so I volunteered to take my truck to help him out. When we got there, he wanted some time to sort through his things, and told me there was a dog park down the street where I could take Lupe to play for a while. I wasn't that enthusiastic about going to a dog park, but as Lupe had been cooped up in the truck for a while, I thought I'd give it a shot. As I was driving there, I thought: major metropolitan area, probably uptight people, better behave, so I put Lupe on the leash even before I let her out of the truck. The first thing I noticed was dogs running free off into the distance. Where are the fences? There might be some, but not that I could see. To call this place a dog park is to call the King Ranch a garden. Literally hundreds of dogs and owners walking and running around as far as I could see. Right on SF bay, with a great view of SF and the Golden Gate Bridge. The amazing thing is that with all these dogs running around free, there was nary a bark nor a squabble during the two hours I was there. The only thing I can figure is that with so much space, the dogs evidently don't feel that they are forced to be too close together, so they are less aggressive than they would be in a normal dog park.

The place is Pt Isabel Dog Park, which is sort of in between El Cerrito and Albany, in the East Bay. You take the Central Ave exit off I 80 and drive west to the bay. I have lived in Sacramento for more than 40 years, and go to SF frequently, but never knew this place existed. Probably because there is really no reason why a visitor to SF would want to visit El Cerrito or Albany. But if you are in SF with a dog, and would like to visit dog heaven for a while, this is the place to go.