Valley View Rd, May Valley

Valley View Road is the first major artery you can take from San Pablo Dam Road to the 80 Freeway. If you are one of the many that use San Pablo Dam road to commute into the Walnut Creek area and to avoid the traffic in Alameda County, then you probably already know that you can take Valley View until it changes into Appian Way and then take it down until your reach the 80 in Pinole.

Although the traffic on this road makes it a bit undesirable as a residential street, there are some okay houses here and on the streets that come off Valley View. El Sobrante is a pretty overlooked area (many people in the Bay Area either don’t know it exists or if they do couldn’t point it out to you on a map), but this is part of its charm.

Valley View also has lots of other attractions for those who live near it (although very few that would bring anyone here from outside El Sobrante). De Anza High School is located here (it is a bit run down looking from the outside but seems to have a good sports program from what I read in the paper). In addition, there are also gas stations, a tattoo parlor, a Starbucks, a florist, and a funeral home—although I must admit that I’ve never actually stopped here to check any of these out. (The place to go if you are driving through is Fitzgerald Blvd off of Appian Way just before the freeway. There are far better choices in terms of food and atmosphere there. Although you will also run into a much bigger crowd.)