Dumbarton Quarry Campground on the Bay

Dumbarton Quarry Campground on the Bay is the East Bay Regional Park District's first full-service campground, set inside Coyote Hills Regional Park on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in Fremont. It has 63 campsites, a camp store, an amphitheater, a playground, Wi-Fi, and picnic areas with barbecues; sites can be booked up to 12 weeks ahead, and picnic reservations need at least three business days' notice. Ground fires are not allowed, only personal cooking units.

The site has an unusual past. The quarry operated from the 1950s until 2007, and its gravel went into parts of San Francisco and Oakland International Airports and many highways. Digging turned a 190-foot hill into a pit 22 acres across and 320 feet below sea level at its deepest, the lowest human-made elevation in North America, before the Park District and its partners refilled it with clean fill from Bay Area construction projects. Long before that, Tuibun Ohlone people lived in a nearby village for about 2,000 years.

Trails link the campground to Coyote Hills and the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge for hiking, biking, and wildlife watching. Dogs and horses are kept out of the Coyote Hills marsh. From I-880, take CA-84 to Paseo Padre Parkway North, turn left on Quarry Road, then right into the campground.