Its high ridges and peaks give wide views over the San Francisco Bay and inland across other preserved land to Mount Diablo.

The bus line stops at the Tilden Nature Area/Little Farm, Lone Oak Road, Lake Anza/Merry-Go-Round, and the Brazilian Room/Botanic Garden before returning to Berkeley.

Spanish explorers and Mexican ranchos drove the Ohlone off the land as ranching became the dominant activity in Wildcat Canyon.

[3] The 2,162 acres purchased included land for Tilden Park (then called Upper Wildcat Canyon), Lake Temescal and Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve (then known as "Roundtop.

")[4] Upper Wildcat Canyon was officially named "Charles Lee Tilden Regional Park" on July 16, 1936.

In the six years of “Camp Wildcat Canyon”, more than 3,500 men from eighteen states passed through for enrollment terms of 6 months, with the option of extending their service.

[6] The CCC crews built much of the park's earlier infrastructure and features including roads, trails, bridges, picnic areas, and golf course.

[7] In 1935, California Congressman John H. Tolan, who represented Alameda County helped get a $1.5 million dollar grant request to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) approved.

CCC and WPA workers assisted in the replanting of redwoods in the park that were shipped down the California coast from Fort Bragg.

The Golden Gate International Exposition, a two-year long world's fair, held during 1939-40, was a championship cricket games were conducted in the Meadows field in northern Tilden Park.

The East Bay Regional Park District also purchased used trash cans and benches once the World's Fair had closed.

The event attracted a staggering seventeen million visitors from across the globe and was considered to be the first time a World Fair sought inspiration outside of Europe.

[10] In 1942, at the onset of World War II, 72 acres (29 ha) of southern Tilden Park was leased to the United States government to construct the Grizzly Peak VHF Station.

Originally built as an access road for the World War II and Cold War-era anti-aircraft gun and missile batteries in the area, Nimitz Way is now closed to motor vehicles and has been redeveloped as a multi-use path.

[14] Nimitz was known to hike in the area of Inspiration Point, spreading wild flower seeds, during the time he and his wife lived in Oakland at the Claremont Hotel and later at a residence in Berkeley.

The anti-aircraft installation was decommissioned during the Cold War as a result of the opening of the Nike missile base in adjacent Wildcat Canyon Regional Park.

[15] With these attractions joining the already existing golf course, Botanic Garden, Brazilian Room, and Lake Anza, Tilden Park became a quintessential East Bay experience for the thousands of families that flocked to the area in the years during and after World War II.

Lake Anza is located in the central portion of Tilden Regional Park and is open for swimming from April to October.

Peter Bruno, a pioneer rancher originally from Italy, previously leased the land on which the Brazilian Room was constructed to raise cattle.

The designer of the Brazil Pavilion, Gardiner Dailey, conceptualized both the inside and outside of the building to have massive murals while the exposition was being held.

Nimitz Way, a four-mile-long (6 km) paved trail (named after Admiral Chester W. Nimitz) that begins at Inspiration Point on the eastern edge of the park and heads north along the ridge of the hills, crossing into Wildcat Canyon Regional Park about two miles (3 km) in and ending at a peak above El Sobrante.

Unknown to most of the folks who travel this trail, the two-mile section that is in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park was a Nike missile base which was decommissioned in the 1970s.