Sunol Water Temple

Very nice architecture and also a good peaceful place to check out. Sunol Water Temple is only open Monday thru Friday from 9 AM to 3 PM (except legal holidays), but it’s still worth a visit. Wonderful photo opportunity and you will get to see the water flowing up-​close.

Peaceful place that you can walk around, nice scenery of mountains as back ground. I dropped by on the way to Livermore outlets, took some nice pictures there.

They’ve raised the price to get married there. Now (early 2016) it’s $ 542! Nice location but there’s nothing there but the temple and some interpretive displays. No facilities except for a porta-​potty, so I’m unclear on what justifies the $ 542 cost for 2 hours.
But do go see it, especially in the spring for the red buds and the green hills. Good for about a 20 minute visit.

I’ve been wanting to take some pics here for a while, had to email the SF Public Utilities Commission to make sure it was open Monday 4÷1÷13. They don’t get Cesar Chavez Day off so I was happy. It’s FREE to enter & take pics.
Open M-​F 9 – 3 for the public. It’s a nice drive in, with purple leaves in the California Redbud trees. Lilac bushes — didn’t see them, Lombard Poplars — not sure if they are still there.
You can read the history of the SWT & take pics. The ceiling wasn’t finished, kinda neat to see.
Spent about 20 min there.
Website with more info:

Have your wedding ceremony here! It costs $ 150 and you get the place all to your self on the weekend. We got married here 10÷27÷12 and it was gorgeous! The pictures came out beautifully. Everyone commented on the nice dramatic drive up to the Temple. It was all around just amazing. They only allow weddings spring-​fall (I think October is the last month), but $ 150 for a wedding ceremony venue! It was a great deal. Oh, one other recommendation, since they only let you rent the venue for 2 hours, we did a standing ceremony and only had a few chairs for elderly and family. It sounds strange but was totally not and t made it easier and faster to setup and take down. Also, there is no private room for the bride or groom to wait before the ceremony, so we arrived in limos and were dropped off during the ceremony, which had a dramatic effect. All around I absolutely LOVED IT!!!

A nice place to take a walk and admire nature. Just try to forget that a nuclear plant is a few miles away.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Water Temple. I grew up in Sunol, and attended the restoration ceremony in September 1997; also in attendance was SF Mayor Willie Brown. I missed it’s 100^th birthday celebration last year, though. It is beautiful, peacful, and it will probably be the venue for our wedding ceremony.

A quiet place to stroll and contemplate. The structure is beautiful and the surrounding foliage tranquil and gorgeous esp in fall.

The Water Temple is a pretty interesting spot in the nowhere plains along 680. A pseudo historic monument that is an amazingly classic structure, from the Corinthian columns and the painted ceiling panels, and even the simple aqueduct passages carrying water out west.
Evidently there are ghostly spirits that wander the park, though I can’t confirm or deny this.
Good for a leg stretch on a long drive, or a picnic, or maybe a hike. I don’t know.
There is a nice sustainable farm next to the water temple, too. I stopped to talk to them one day and its all for a good cause, food banks or something, I don’t quite remember. I was lost in the eyes of the pretty gal I chatted with.

I was delighted to see an explanation for this place on Wikipedia:
It was built in 1910 and is modeled after the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy. It was restored relatively recently, and In 2006, the Sunol Water Temple Agricultural Park was created to provide land for small farmers and community farming projects. The Water Temple is generally open in the daytime if the gates are open.
It’s not very large, and it seems to hint at more than you can actually see, but it’s still beautiful and I love that it exists. If the idea of this kind of thing intrigues you, you should definitely take a moment to check it out while you’re in the neighborhood (the drive from Fremont to Sunol proper is nice and scenic).
Anyway, go visit the Sunol Water Temple – it’s like a little piece of a lost mythical civilization right in your backyard!

I too always wondered what this spot was. One day I set off with camera in hand and began exploring. It’s a neat spot to visit and takes pics.

i was always amazed as a child at the water tower! my mom used to take me here all the time to see the landmark sculpture and awesome paintings. and to listen to and watch the water run way below the ground. it’s not really anything you must go out of your way to see but if your ever in the area it’s really pretty and has alot of history. take my advice also and look for info on the «secret sidewalk». to this day i always think of that scary sidewalk, the white witch that roams niles canyon since her accidental death. and the deep and eerie water tower that still stand to this day. besides all the scary the water tower is also a fantastic place to get that very first kiss from that special person you always wanted to get closer to. this place is pure magic!
it has been a treasured landmark since the early 1900’s and water runs out as far to the san francisco bay. unfortunately it was hit hard and damaged severely with the big earthquake in 1989 so i’m really glad i got to see it in it’s original state. since then restoration has been done to improve and fix what was lost and is open to all to see.