(02-14) 17:03 PST -- What you'll see: Mines Road is one of the few Bay Area roads where you feel like you're in the "middle of nowhere." This is the longest back road in the East Bay hills. Your destination with the big views is the top of 4,209-foot Mount Hamilton, but the payoffs are continuous. Mines Road starts just south of Livermore, near Del Valle Regional Park. It's a two-laner that runs south into a valley that extends into the Bay Area's most remote foothill wildlands. The Cedar Mountains are to your right and Crane Ridge is to your left. Arroyo Mocho runs along the road. It's been a dry creekbed for much of this year, but it runs high and muddy after heavy winter rains. The farther you go, the better it gets. The road continues south into San Antonio Valley, where in spring of some years, I've seen amazing blooms of goldfields and other wildflowers. The road, with a name change to San Antonio Valley Road in Santa Clara County, then climbs up the distant, little-seen east slopes of Mount Hamilton. It seems an endless series of twists and turns, what we call "way out there," to the summit and Lick Observatory.

Driving time: For the entire trip to the top, and back, plan to make a day of it.

Wildlife: Watch for hovering and soaring raptors, with an excellent chance to see red-tailed hawks, golden eagles and prairie falcons. This is a busy wintering area for raptors.

For a loop: From Mount Hamilton, continue 19 miles (very twisty) to San Jose.

Contact: Lick Observatory Tours and Gift Shop, (408) 274-5061; mthamilton.ucolick.org.

How to get there: Take Interstate 580 to Livermore and the exit for South Vasco Road. Take that exit south and continue on Vasco to where it ends at Tesla Road. Turn right on Tesla and drive just under one mile to Mines Road. Turn left on Mines Road and drive 3.5 miles to the junction with Del Valle Road. Continue left on Mines Road and continue to Mt. Hamilton.

- Tom Stienstra

This article appeared on page C - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle