Carnegie Off Road Vehicle Area

Carnegie:

• Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area.

Trip Notice(s):

What's there?

The park consists of 1500 acres of steep hilly terrain. The majority of the terrain is for motorcycle and ATV use. The 4x4 area is limited to the creek bottom and main road. Supposedly there is a developed 4x4 obstacle course, but I did not see it when I visited.

Trip Report 02.MAY.1998:

On my way back from a day at the Prairie City SVRA near Sacramento, traffic was backed up from 580 onto I-5. On this day, there was some pretty severe weather, in fact a tornado touched down in an area I had driven through earlier that day. Anyway, there was an army truck (bobtail semi) sitting on its roof in the center divide and another on its wheels facing in the wrong direction. Two GI Joes were standing beside the road surveying the situation.

Anyway, I slipped past the stopped traffic and headed on down I-5, across 132, up 205 and onto Corral Hollow road. Not only did this save me from the stop-n-go grind, but took me to Carnegie SVRA. This route is about 15 miles longer than the freeway, but makes a good bypass if heavy traffic is present on 580. In fact, taking Corral Hollow, which turns into Mines Road at the county line, will drop you into downtown Livermore, where you can hook up with Hwy. 84, that will in turn leave you at the base of the Sunol Grade, avoiding most of the traffic bottlenecks back into the Bay Area.

I spent an hour or so in the park before sundown, driving down then back up the stream bed. Winter floods had left a fairly flat gravel bed. If you looked you could find some rocks, sand, and stream banks to play on. I've heard that there is a small 4x4 obstacle course in the park. I didn't know that it was there, so didn't know to ask where it was. Maybe I'll make a return trip to check it out. With the annual SVRA pass, I get in for free.

Update (3/03):

Apparently some additional 4WD obstacle course terrain has been added. There is a rocky pit and a frame twister obstacle. Maybe some day I'll get out and see, but if anyone has current pictures of the area, I'd love to see them.