New 3.5-mile trail loop in Ukiah set for grand opening Saturday

UKIAH, CA., 6/20/26 — A new set of trails in Ukiah will have their grand opening Saturday. 

The first 3.5 miles of a network known as the Gateway Trail Loop starts at the corner of Helen Avenue and Doolin Canyon Road.

It is part of the Lookout Peak trail network, a 22-mile project that volunteers from the Ukiah Valley Trail Group have worked to establish in inland Mendocino County since October.

Neil Davis, the group’s director, presented the trail network’s progress at the city council meeting Wednesday.

The trail loop that’s opening was made possible with the use of an excavator and the trail group hiring its first full-time seasonal employee to operate it, Davis said.

Davis said the city of Ukiah paid $27,500 for the concept mapping of the trail, including about $25,000 in research, documentation and approval required by the California Environmental Quality Act.

The trail group put in about $17,000 to get the necessary biological survey done before building the trail and spent $75,000 in the last six months to get the trail built. Davis said volunteers put 768 hours put into building the trail since last fall.

The trails will eventually have directional signs but are numbered for now instead of being named, Davis said. He said the permanent names of the trails will be decided by the council with public input as well as consultation from the trail group board. This way, the public will be allowed to experience the trails before helping name them, Davis said.

Work will continue on the trail network in the fall when the weather is cooler and the ground is less dry. Davis said he hopes to have a second trail loop built by this time next year.

The grand opening of the first loop will be from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday. Music will be playing at the halfway point of the loop, with refreshments provided.