The area was inhabited by Native Americans until 1772 when a group of "Catalan volunteers" led by Pedro Fagas and Fray Juan Crespi came across the settlement while searching for trade routes north beyond the Carquinez Strait.

The Spanish settled the general area and by 1840 had parceled the land for missions and cattle raising coming into conflict with the historical communal practices of the Native Americans.

[3] The addition will allow easier access for visitors from El Sobrante and Richmond (via a planned trailhead and staging area on San Pablo Dam Road) and connects the park to the Kennedy Grove Regional Recreation Area and San Pablo Reservoir.

[1][4] In the park there are coast live oak, California bay laurel, bigleaf maple, madrone, alder, willow, dogwood, and eucalyptus trees, in addition to humid chaparrals made up of coyote brush, poison oak, elderberry, snowberry, bracken fern, and blackberry brambles.

[2] Coyotes, foxes, raccoons, skunks, opossums, deer, California ground squirrels (often thought to be gophers) and voles are among the mammals found in the park.

The two-mile (3.2 km) section in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park was a Nike missile base which was decommissioned in the 1970s.