Etched into the hills is “Niles”, one of the five independent towns that were eventually incorporated to form Fremont in the 1950s. The
Altamont Commuter Express, a commuter railway, cuts through Niles Canyon connecting Pleasanton and Livermore to the East Bay and San Jose. The train begins way out beyond the Altamont Pass in Stockton in the San Joaquin Valley. Unlike the newer parts of Fremont, Niles is an old railroad town, at the junction of three Union Pacific (ex-Southern Pacific) subdivisions (Oakland, Niles, and Warm Springs)… You can frequently hear the distant horns of freight and passenger (
Capitol Corridor and ACE) trains. The tracks at bottom here, comprising the UP Oakland Sub and BART, run along the northern edge of the park. In the past, Niles also had a booming motion picture industry, and Charlie Chaplin would film many scenes here.
It wasn’t spring, but the rolling hills were blanketed in green… This doesn’t quite feel like the Bay Area.