Diablo Dog Featured in Diablo Mag
- Matt Heikkila
- Oct 14
- 3 min read
We've appeared in Diablo Magazine a couple of times, but so far only in the Best of the East Bay 2024 and 2025. We won for Best Pet Groomer, Best Dog Trainer, and Best Dog Walker (twice). You made that happen so thank you for all of your votes! Those appearances made Diablo Magazine aware of us so when they were working on this dog issue they reached out to us to pick our brains about our favorite hiking trails.
While we provide pet grooming, doggy daycare, pet photography, and sell pet supplies, our original service was off-leash group hikes. Our footprint is pretty big, ranging from Martinez, to Concord, Walnut Creek and out to Orinda and as we've grown, our trail database has as well. Last year I wrote a blog of the comprehensive dog trails I know in the area for our website. It covers Contra Costa County and Alameda County as those are the areas I know best, but we even stretched to much of the California coast, and dog beaches my wife Kim and I have brought our own dog's Maggie and Roo.
I've moved back to this area after a decade away in 2011, and hiked with my own late great Loki dog until he passed away in 2020. I liked in places like Briones, Morgan Territory, Shell Ridge, Lime Ridge, and many more places recreationally and then took a job in Oakland walking dogs where I'd bring him with me to Chabot, Sibley, and Leona Ridge.
Diablo Magazine stuck close to home and talks about some East Bay spots to hike with your dogs:
When they asked me what my favorite trails were the difficulty wasn't in picking good ones, it was figuring out what ones to leave out. I wanted to include trails managed or owned by different entities, as we have a few really great ones protecting our land for us to enjoy hopefully forever.
I included Briones because it is nearest and dearest to my Contra Costa County heart. It takes up a huge chunk of the map, and I've criss crossed it multiple times, visited every trailhead, and I think touched foot and paw on every named trail and many that aren't. Briones is part of the East Bay Regional Park District, the largest regional park system in the country. Most of the undeveloped areas allow dogs to be off-leash, under voice control, so you can see how I'd appreciate that (Huckleberry Botanical Regional Preserve is a spot that doesn't allow dogs on or off leash and is well worth a visit by the way). A selection of trails in a number of the parks allow commercial dog-walking with a permit, which we've held with them since 2013.
The other two spots are managed by different entities altogether. One is Shell Ridge, which is a huge open space in Walnut Creek that is wide open and known for attracting some flower superbloom seekers in Spring, but I find it to have the best views of the area. It is managed by the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation.
The third one I mentioned is less known and called Mulholland Ridge Open Space Preserve. It's smaller, but has some varied trails including a paved portion that is fantastic on rainy, muddy days.
I didn't mention the John Muir Land Trust which has a number of great spots such as Fernandez Ranch, which is along the 4 closest to Port Costa, or Wilder in Moraga, but our blog we did previously does have all of these any many many more.
If you're interested in our pet services including off-leash group dog hikes, neighborhood dog walking, cat checks, mobile and in store dog grooming, and customized dog training, feel free to create an account with us, call us, or email us. We look forward to meeting you and your dogs!
Thanks for reading,
Matt
Diablo Dog
725 Alhambra Ave, Martinez
(925) 215-0410
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