And honestly, can you blame anyone? When a studio apartment in SF runs you $2,500 a month and a mediocre lunch costs $22, a free-ish day hike through rolling hills and creek crossings starts looking like the best deal in the entire Bay Area. Sunol has always been the under-the-radar alternative to the more Instagram-famous Mission Peak crowd, but the secret is clearly out.

The traffic situation heading out to the area was its own special adventure. One Bay Area commuter summed up the vibe perfectly: "Currently still stuck in this shit ass traffic." Poetic.

Here's the thing — crowded parks are actually a good problem to have. It means people are choosing to spend their weekends outside rather than doom-scrolling, and they're doing it without requiring a massive government subsidy to have a good time. East Bay Regional Parks are one of the best-run public systems in the region, delivering genuine value to taxpayers without the bloated overhead we've come to expect from Bay Area government agencies.

But the crowding does raise a practical question: is the infrastructure keeping up? Parking at Sunol is limited, the access roads aren't built for heavy volume, and when things get backed up on Route 84, the whole corridor turns into a mess. If the parks district is seeing sustained demand increases, it might be time to invest in better traffic management and expanded lot capacity — before it becomes another Bay Area planning failure addressed five years too late.

For now, the move is simple: get there early, bring water, and leave no trace. Sunol is a gem. Let's not love it to death.