Here is an easy ride with mind-blowing Bay views. This route traverses all of the trails open to bikes on Angel Island.

The route consists of one full loop of the Perimeter Road circling the island (6 miles), which is a paved road open only to hikers and cyclists (there's no motor-vehicle traffic on Angel Island), plus a shorter (3-mile) second full loop at 450 feet of elevation on a fire road. The connection between the two loops is a quarter-mile uphill with about 130 feet of elevation gain (which is the only part that is a "real" climb). Those who are not up for taking the second loop can easily bypass it and continue on to complete just the lower loop.

In terms of scenery "per unit amount of effort", this bike ride is easily number one in the whole Bay Area. The route does a full 360 of the island, giving you views of all parts of the bay along the way.

It's also easy enough to be suitable for the whole family, especially if you bypass the "upper loop", although the upper loop is the only part of the ride that even resembles mountain biking. There are minor grades at a few points along the loop (both of them), but they are all manageable even for most non-bikers and (in case your pre-teen is too out of shape to pedal up any one of them) they're all short enough that they can easily be walked up.

This being an island, you need to take a ferry to get there. I would recommend taking the ferry from Tiburon. (There is also one from San Francisco but it runs relatively infrequently.) The links to the website of the ferry service and their parking information are below. The parking map I've linked to highlights the parking lots shown on the ferry website.

Ferry service website
Parking information from the ferry website

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