Find Magic Along the Bridgeview Troll Trail Hike in Oakland with your Kids

Nestled in the hills of Oakland’s Dimond District is a whimsical urban hike through a land of magic.

The Bridgeview Trail has hidden “trolls” made of wood, trash, and other objects around every corner. Finding them along the trail turned into a fun scavenger hunt for my preschooler and toddler.

My family searched for trolls one sunny weekday afternoon along the Troll Hike and immediately texted our friends to let them know about this fun activity.

Here are a few tips to get your family outdoors on a troll hunt:

The city of Oakland is located on the stolen lands of the Lisjan Ohlone people.

Before you go

Choose your starting point. There are three access points to begin the Troll Hike. Check out Google Maps to pick your starting point. We chose to start at the end of Bridgeview Drive in Oakland to avoid the steep climb at the beginning of the Monterey Blvd access point.
Check the weather. Oakland can be cloudy and chilly in the morning, but warm and sunny in the afternoons. Bring layers!
Get there early. The Bridgeview Trailhead on Bridgeview Drive is located at the end of a tiny, winding neighborhood street and parking is limited. The trail is more popular later in the afternoon. Get there early to find a parking spot closer to the trailhead and to encounter fewer people on the trail.
Wear closed toed shoes. The trail can be dusty!

What to pack:

Standard diaper bag essentials
Sunscreen and hats
Water
Baby carrier or backpack
Snacks or picnic lunch
Picnic blanket
Closed-toed shoes

Tips to Hike the Bridgeview Trail

Prepare for a hike

The trail is a 1.9-mile-long, out-and-back trail that took about two hours to complete with a snack break. The trail is flat and narrow, with little tree coverage.

Since it is an out-and-back trail, we turned around at the tree swing grove and headed back towards the start. Our family enjoyed retracing our steps to revisit the kids’ favorite trolls and say “goodbye.” We even found a few new trolls we missed on the hike in.

Bring a map

A community of troll enthusiasts built the rustic trolls along Bridgeview Trail in 2020 and created a Facebook page for troll followers to keep up to date on new additions.

We printed the map and followed it as we moved through the trees and turns of the trail.

At the time of this writing, the map online was very outdated. My preschooler was disappointed that some of the trolls listed on the map were not where the map said they would be. We considered sending a message to the Troll Community to ask for an update.

Talk to your kids about the trolls

Show them what the trolls look like before you go. My preschooler is a huge fan of the Disney movie Frozen, which features troll characters that look like rocks.

When we found our first troll, my kiddo was not impressed because the trolls did not look like the trolls she had imagined based on the film.

After finding the first troll on the trail, she continued to claim she could not see the troll even though it was clearly right in front of us. I had to explain to her what we were seeing—one troll had rope hair and eyes made out of bottle caps.

I wish I had shown her a few pictures before we started the hike so she would have known what she was getting into.

Enjoy a picnic under the canopy of the trees

There is a large group of trees with low branches, a few tree swings, and a bunch of trolls isolated towards the end of the trail. We stopped to swing, count trolls, and enjoy a picnic in this tree grove.

There were plenty of branches and stumps to sit on and even trolls you can get up close and personal with. My toddler was excited to touch a troll and give it a hug.

Beware though, we noticed a tree rat running about while we were snacking.

Don't forget to look up

Trolls are everywhere! In the trees, behind bushes, along the vines, and on the floor.

Keep your eyes open for well hidden trolls along the way.

Have a baby or toddler? Bring a kid carrier.

Even if your baby or toddler can and wants to walk, they will not be hiking 1.9 miles, or at least not faster than a snail’s pace!

Sometimes, I don’t mind walking at a toddler’s pace (aka hella slow) but while hiking with other families and my preschooler is running ahead along the trail I feel some pressure to keep moving.

Having my toddler in a carrier also allowed me to show her the trolls I found, and talk to her about what we were both seeing.

Click here for our other favorite baby carriers for hikes.

I was happy to see many BIPOC families, runners, and hikers using this neighborhood trail, and felt safe even though I brought my kids on the hike as a solo parent.

We loved strolling along the Bridgeview Troll Trail. It was the perfect walk for my preschooler because it was relatively flat, wasn’t too long, and had the added incentive of finding trolls along the way.

Even though my preschooler was a huge fan of this hike, she was not initially impressed by the rustic trolls made from trash. She inquired why someone would make something like this, and my immediate response was, “Why not? Isn’t it cool to make something out of found objects or trash? Let’s use our imaginations. What other things do you think we will find?”

After this conversation, finding the trolls and figuring out what they were made of became a game. She started pondering what we would make our own trolls out of, and has started to save trash at home to make a troll in the future.

Although I’m happy to support her creativity and inventiveness, I’m not sure what to do with the bottle caps that are piling up in her room…

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Angel

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Puerto Rican & Indigenous mama of two. Bay Area native. Salsa dancer. Backpacker. Doula. Angel (she/her/hers) is a co-founding member of the Beautiful Brown Adventures team. She has traveled to over 30 countries and loves to explore the world with her two daughters & partner - one ice cream shop at a time.