Notice: The Open Space Authority Butterfly Pass will migrate to a new system in 2024.
Please keep an eye out for future updates.
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Due to the extremely sensitive habitat found throughout Máyyan 'Ooyákma – Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve, the Open Space Authority is working with visitors to ensure that the rare and endangered species found here can survive and thrive. To protect this landscape's rare and endangered species, a Butterfly Pass is required to hike on designated trails within the preserve.
How to get Your BUTTERFLY PASS!
Step 1: Read the preserve guidelines below:
- Visitors must stay on designated trails at all times.
- Do not disturb any wildlife - including plants and animals found at the preserve.
- Share the trail and pack out ALL trash or food items. Take nothing and leave nothing behind.
- There are no pets or drones allowed at the preserve.
- Visitors accessing the Habitat Protection Area must stop and clean their shoes, bike tires, or horse's hooves at the cleaning station prior to going on the trails. This helps reduce the spread of disease and or invasive plants that cause harm to the rare plants and wildlife found within the preserve.
- Check openspaceauthority.org for trail conditions and closures before every visit. For public safety, rain and red flag warnings may lead to closure without notice.
Step 2: Fill out the form below to get your Butterfly Pass!
How to use your butterfly pass
Your Butterfly Pass is required to enter the Habitat Protection Area (identified on the preserve map). Please have a digital (saved photo or screenshot on your phone) or paper copy of your pass with you at all times when within the Habitat Protection Area. One Butterfly Pass is required per group, but it is highly encouraged that each member of your party has a Butterfly Pass in case you are separated from the group. Habitat Protection Team Members will be onsite and may ask to see your Butterfly Pass while you are in the Habitat Protection Area. Thank you!
Learn when you can visit the preserve and the Habitat Protection Area by downloading our Know Before You Go operations calendar.
Help Protect sensitive wildlife!
The threatened Bay checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha bayensis) is a medium-sized butterfly with black, orange, yellow, and white checkered spots that give it its name. The Bay checkerspot was once widespread along the Bay Area Peninsula, but factors such as pollution, pesticides, and habitat loss have greatly reduced their numbers. Caterpillars hatch in the spring and spend the winter in cocoon-like chrysalises, which they emerge from as adult butterflies in late February to early May. The Bay checkerspot depends on rare serpentine soils – like those found Máyyan 'Ooyákma – Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve – that support the plants on which their caterpillars feed.
By staying on designated trails, leaving no trace, and refraining from picking any plants or disturbing wildlife, YOU can help us protect this rare species.
LEARN MORE
Produced by Save Mount Diablo, this short film tells the story of Coyote Valley, touring its spectacular landscapes and covering the extent of its significance as a critical linkage between the Diablo Range, the Santa Cruz Mountains, and Máyyan 'Ooyákma – Coyote Ridge.