The hook
A whole island in the middle of the bay — 2,500-year-old Ohlone shellmound, a 160-foot summit, and Bing Crosby's old private hunting club — closed to everyone except a handful of naturalist-led paddle tours a year.
01Why it's worth it
Brooks Island floats off the Richmond harbor in plain sight of a million people and admits perhaps a hundred a year. The East Bay parks run occasional kayak tours (bring-your-own-boat or outfitted): you paddle the shoreline, land where landing is otherwise forbidden, and walk a two-mile naturalist loop past one of the bay's best-preserved shellmounds — occupied for two and a half millennia — up to a rocky little summit with a 360° water-level panorama no bridge or shoreline gives you. Its twentieth-century cameo is the odd part: for years the island was leased as a private pheasant-hunting club whose members included Bing Crosby, caretaken by a resident who guarded it like a fiefdom. The access tax is the appeal inverted — booking one of the 6–10 annual dates is the crux, and the emptiness you buy with it is total.
02How to experience it
Watch EBParks.org/Register for "Brooks Island Adventure" dates (or call the reservations line); they post seasonally and fill fast. Tours pair paddling skill with tide windows — read the requirements before booking. The Richmond marina launch adds Rosie the Riveter's waterfront as the natural same-day pairing.