Pearson Arastradero Preserve, Palo Alto 2015-03-27

It was a beautiful spring day and we decided to hike at Pearson Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto / Los Altos Hills. The parking lot at the trail head is located by Arastradero Road, a short distance from 280 / Page Mill Road exit. The bulk of the preserve and trails lie south of Arastradero Road, while a smaller 1.7 mile loop, Redtail Loop Trail, is right by the parking lot.

My older daughter, Sanjana, was home for her Spring Break and joined Apollo and I on the hike today! Apollo was quite glad to be led by her today, enjoying liberties that he normally wouldn’t get from me. Walking about 500 feet from the parking lot, we crossed Arastradero Road and started our hike with Juan Bautista de Anza Rrail. About half a mile of walking led us to Arastradero Lake on the left. We continued south by the Arastradero Creek Trail, walking for nearly a mile. Both the de Anza and Arastradero Creek trails are fire road / dirt trails that are quite exposed.

We turned right at Woodrat Trail, a narrow trail that required us to go single file, but provided some shade. Less than half a mile of hiking with some elevation led us to Meadowlark Trail. An immediate right took us to a vista point, providing awesome views of Felt Lake, Stanford Dish, and the bay.

At about 775 feet, this is the highest point in the preserve. From there, we came back to Meadowlark Trail, slowly turning around the preserve, continued north on Woodland Star Trail, Bay Laurel Trail, and Ohlone Trail to reach the de Anza Trail junction. During the first section, we walked very close to a neighbor who evidently had a sheep farm in his backyard!

As you can see, I’ve mentioned several trail names, each of relatively small distance. A map would come in handy for anyone choosing to visit the preserve, and you can choose to hike different trails and extend your hike by a mile or so. This is one of the smaller preserves I’ve hiked in. With gentle rolling grass hills, plenty of deciduous oak trees, easy elevations (less than 500 ft. of ascent, at best), and well maintained dirt trails, this would be a fine option for beginners.

We wrapped up by taking the Bonus Hill Trail and Meadowlark Trail, joining de Anza Trail again and retracing our way back to the parking lot. Our hike today was a 4.8 mile loop completed in a comfortable pace in 1½ hours.

More pictures from the hike.

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