Alameda County piers

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Don’t tell San Francisco, but Coronado Ferry Landing in San Diego may have the most jaw-dropping city views in the state, including a snazzy skyline, Navy craft, the Coronado Bay Bridge and the traffic (sailboats to freighters) in the channel. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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All aboard for spectacular views of the bay. Board a craft at Coronado Ferry Landing for the 15-minute cruise across the bay to downtown San Diego. Prepare to be dazzled. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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Just after sunset, surfers return to shore on the southern side of the Oceanside Pier. At 1,954 feet, it’s the longest wooden pier along the West Coast. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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The Oceanside Pier provides a perfect vantage point for watching waves -- in this case, huge ones -- crash into the beach. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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Trim cottages line both sides of Crystal Pier in San Diego County. Each of the 21 lodgings comes with a small, private deck that looks out on the water and provides some privacy. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

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From the San Clemente Pier, the view of land trumps the view out to sea. Cliffs showcase buildings and homes that riff on classic Spanish Colonial design. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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A surfer rides a wave near the wooden San Clemente Pier at sunset. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Sunset at the Manhattan Beach Pier -- early morning or late afternoon, it’s a photo op waiting just for you. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

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Pier 39 is the biggest outdoor, multistory shopping mall sitting on/masquerading as a pier in California. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

June 29, 2012 2:01 PM PT

Dumbarton PierOverview: Walk this asphalt span and look down at the surface and you may see faint traces of yellow in the middle of the pier. Then it hits you: This looks like an old road. And, indeed, Dumbarton Pier was once a road, the starting point for the first bridge built across the bay in 1927. (A sister pier, now closed, called the Ravenswood Pier, sits opposite.) It’s not the most scenic spot, though the wetlands that parallel the road to the pier provide some ambience. There’s abundant bird life as well as a wildlife center as you enter the area.

Parking: Free parking alongside the road as you approach the pier.

Directions: Exit Interstate 880 to Highway 84 to the Paseo Padre Parkway exit. Follow the road south under the highway. It turns into Thornton Avenue and winds past the wildlife center. The pier is about 3 miles beyond the center.

Port View/7th Street Pier

Overview: This pier, nearly 50 years old, is not much more than 100 feet long, but it has an interesting octagonal shape. If you stumble across it, it’s worth a brisk walk to check out the water, but it isn’t necessarily a destination pier.

Parking: Free parking in the park, about a quarter-mile walk to the pier.

Directions: In Richmond, exit Interstate 880 at 8th Street. Go west to Peralta and make a left. Turn right onto 7th Street and follow it to the park and pier.

Berkeley Pier

Overview: When the San Mateo Pier closed in the late ‘90s, the Berkeley Pier officially became the longest in the state, stretching more than 3,000 feet. It’s a long, often lonely walk out and back on a gray day, but it’s rewarding because you get a sense of the immensity of San Francisco Bay. The pier has a timeless feel (marred only by traces of contemporary graffiti) underscored by views as far away as the Golden Gate Bridge.

Background: There have been wharves and piers in this area since 1854.The pier often served as a principal ferry dock, but the opening of the Bay Bridge to San Francisco in 1936 put an end to its use for that purpose. The current pier was built in 1959 for recreational uses, and then lengthened by 1,000 feet in 1962. It has stayed about the same for the last half-century.

Parking: Free, at the sizable lot across from the foot of the pier.

Directions: Exit Interstate 80 at University Avenue. Take University toward the water where it dead-ends near the pier.

-- Christopher Smith