Foothills Park, Palo Alto Open Space 2015-12-09

An exclusive park for Palo Alto residents, non-residents can visit Foothills Park if accompanied by a Palo Alto resident or if they hike from Pearson Arastradero Preserve by the the Arastradero Creek trail. Dogs are allowed in the park only on weekdays. You can also take a chance to drive in by the main entrance at 3300 Page Mill Rd (off Hwy 280). I did that with Apollo and was lucky not to be stopped although I have heard reports that people have been turned away due to residency requirements.

Toyon trail

Foothills Park has an extensive and varied trail system on the hills and the valleys. We parked right by the entrance and started off hiking Toyon trail. The mile long trail is easy that winds up gradually through shady woodlands. The trail also offers views of Boronda lake. Towards the end, I took the fire road and did a quick stop at Orchard Glen picnic area and Lee Grove, a redwood tree grove in Wildhorse Valley.

Steep Hollow trail

We continued our hike by Steep Hollow trail. From Wildhorse Valley, this trail climbs rather steeply over the next 1/2 mile before connecting to Los Trancos trail. Steep Hollow trail is heavily shaded, with oak and California bay trees lining its sides.  

View from Los Trancos trail

Running 7.5+ miles, Los Trancos is the longest trail in the park. Apollo and I did just a mile of it, turning right from Steep Hollow and walking down to the Las Trampas Valley where the park HQ is located. This mile we walked is an easy descend. Along the way, there were couple of spots offering great views of the bay and the mountains on the east bay side. 

Las Trampas Valley

Las Trampas valley is a huge valley with mountains on either side. A grassy knoll greeted us as we exited Los Trancos trail and walked the 1/4 mile to connect to Coyote trail. 

Madera Point

Coyote trail winds up gradually, has a short detour to Madera Point before continuing in an easterly direction. We did take the short trip to Madera Point, but I must admit the views were somewhat underwhelming, with heavy vegetation cover.

Panorama trail

Coyote trail passes by Gate D, where you can hike from Pearson Arastradero Preserve. Little ahead, Coyote trail connects to Panorama trail. Situated at the northern most corner of the park, this trail intersects a fire road before doing a mile loop. It is possible to miss the Panorama trail here. The loop starts and ends right by a small wooden bridge. Keep an eye out to avoid getting lost - there are no markers at this spot.

There are couple of spots from where I could see the bay, Stanford Dish and the iconic clock tower of the University, but overall, the views were impacted by vegetation cover. In fact, the best views are actually from the fire road! Completing the loop, we reached the fire road intersection. We took the fire road into the park, walking around a huge water tank and a fire station to reach the main road.

Turning left by the main road, we walked around the other side of Boronda lake and reached the main entrance where I'd parked my car. We covered nearly 7 miles doing a clockwise loop by Toyon trail --> Steep Hollow trail --> Los Trancos trail --> Coyote trail --> Panorama trail climbing about 1100 feet along the way.

A word of caution. Apollo picked up lots of ticks in this park. I had to constantly keep checking him for ticks all through the hike. I must have easily picked between two to three dozen ticks! Ticks are a general problem in bay area hikes. However, we're nearing 100 hikes in bay area and in no other location did I experience this severe a tick problem. 

More pictures from our hike.
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