Planning
History
As the Peninsula became more urban, opportunities for walking, riding, and picnicking diminished. Then NO TRESPASSING signs and houses appeared where once you could climb a fence to walk or picnic. The counties began to recognize the recreational value of some of the steep canyons, hillsides, and once-cut-over lands.
In 1924 Santa Clara County acquired lower Stevens Creek Canyon, its first county park, which has been a favorite place for hiking and riding ever since. Also in 1924 the Spring Valley Water Company laid out 10 miles of equestrian trails near Lake Merced adjacent to northern San Mateo County, probably the earliest formal trails built on the Peninsula. According to a bulletin of the Spring Valley Water Company, “These trails were planned to give riders as great a diversity of scenery as possible while at the same time minimizing the danger of trespassing on Lake Merced, the golf courses and vegetable gardens.” To this day these concerns remain for trail planners as they seek routes through the countryside that will not conflict with the interests of farmers and property owners.
San Mateo County in the mid-1930s began requiring dedication of riding-trail easements as a part of land subdivisions to prevent loss of pre-existing trail links when land was subdivided.
The continued interest in trails, particularly for riding, was manifested in the late 1940s and early 1950s in a grand plan for a statewide California Riding and Hiking Trail system. In San Mateo County, with the support of horsemen’s associations and hikers and with some funding by the state, trails were laid out over easements through private property along the Skyline ridge, through the San Francisco and Bear Gulch watersheds, and along the right-of-way of Skyline Boulevard and Cañada Road. The California Riding and Hiking Trail was marked by posts with gold symbols of horseshoes and hiking boots. Regrettably, in time, a number of easements through private property lapsed and freeway building obliterated parts of the trail. But many miles of the trail survived, and San Mateo County’s trail from north of San Andreas Lake to Wunderlich Park and SkyLonda uses much of this same route.
The 1940s saw the acquisition of Huddart Park and the development of riding and hiking trails there. San Mateo County, with trail-club cooperation, laid out still more hiking and riding trails on road rights-of-way along Cañada, Whiskey Hill, and Portola roads through the present-day towns of Woodside and Portola Valley.
In a burst of trail-planning activity in the 1950s and 1960s, San Mateo County mapped over 400 miles of trails in the City/County Regional Plan for Parks and Open Space, adopted in 1968. Unfortunately, at that time neither the funding nor the support for trails was sufficient to bring these trails into being.
However, with funding from a federal pilot project to encourage trails in urban areas, three important trails were built in 1969—the Waterdog Lake and Sheep Camp trails from Belmont to Cañada Road and the Alpine Road Hiking, Riding and Bicycle Trail.
In the 1970s, with renewed appreciation for the remarkable potential for hiking and riding trails in the Peninsula mountains and foothills, conservation, hiking, and riding organizations pressed for specific programs and funding for trails. Voters in San Mateo County adopted a Charter for Parks establishing a special tax for park purposes, and Santa Clara County voters passed a park bond issue. In 1974 a gift of Wunderlich Park’s 942 acres of conifer forest and meadows provided hikers with many more miles of trails. The city of Palo Alto bought 1400 acres of hillside woodland, which have become the much prized Foothills Park. Other cities reserved canyons, streamsides, and hillsides for public use.
But the citizens of the Peninsula, still concerned with the rapid disappearance of open space and the slow pace of park acquisition, proposed by initiative a Midpeninsula Regional Park District. Northern Santa Clara County voters formed this district in 1972 and were joined by voters in southern San Mateo County in 1976, after which the name was changed to Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD).
The District’s major purpose is to acquire and preserve foothill and Bayland open space to protect it from development, and to open it to public use consistent with protection of the environment. These lands provide protection for natural vegetation, wildlife, and areas of scenic beauty. The District’s goal is to help preserve a greenbelt of open space linking District lands with state and county lands. By 2004 the District had acquired almost 49,000 acres in San Mateo and northern Santa Clara counties and a corner of Santa Cruz County. This greenbelt is creating a system of regional trails with outstanding opportunities for hiking, riding, bicycling and running. This large aggregation of open space lands creates important wildlife corridors.
In 2004, the District voted to expand its boundaries to the edge of the Pacific, an area of 220 square miles in San Mateo County (its current district encompasses 330 square miles in northwestern Santa Clara and southwestern San Mateo County). Shortly a group circulated a petition to repeal the action. The petitioners needed 4071 signatures to qualify a ballot measure, but the elections office certified fewer than 3450. On September 3, 2004, Judge Carl W. Holm issued a three-page ruling that rejected annexation opponents’ claim that they had gathered enough qualifying votes. He also lifted a temporary restraining order, dated July 13, that halted the annexation process launched in April.
This coastside protection program, endorsed by farmers, conservationists, and business leaders, is designed to protect the region’s unique rural and agricultural heritage. The MROSD gave up its right to eminent domain in this area and agreed only to buy from willing sellers. The District will soon conduct workshops and develop a process needed for democratic representaton of Coastside residents in the open space district.
In 1994, the voters in southern Santa Clara County formed the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority (SCCOSA), a special district with a purpose similar to that of MROSD. It has purchased several parcels, one of which is open to the public—the Boccardo Open Space.
The Peninsula Open Space Trust, a nonprofit land conservancy, takes another approach to open-space acquisition. The Trust is dedicated to private and public preservation of open space in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Organized in 1977, the Trust has protected over 55,000 acres through purchase, gift and provision of local, private matching funds for public projects.
In 1995 the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors adopted a Trails Master Plan, which was the product of several years’ work by citizens’ committees and commissions. This plan identifies 522 miles of trails and trail corridors that in the future will link the county’s urban areas and parks and connect with trails in adjoining counties.
San Mateo County’s Trails Plan was adopted by the Board of Supervisors in March 1990; a revision was drafted in 1995 and approved and made part of the County’s General Plan in 2002. This plan proposes a system of trails that would link county parks to other public parklands in this county and in adjacent counties.
Pressure for trails sparked state legislation for funding major trails to link state and county parks. Growing interest in regional trails led to bold programs initiated in 1987 for two Bay Area trail systems—the San Francisco Bay Trail and the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Statewide citizen action has spearheaded planning for the Coastal Trail and the Anza Trail.
Hostels and Overnight Camping
As long-distance trails take shape, more camping and hostel facilities will be needed. In the area covered by this guide, camping by reservation is possible at many county and state parks in the mountains and at the beaches in the western part of the county. See Appendix I for a complete list and Appendix III for addresses and phone numbers. Backpack camps on Black Mountain in Monte Bello Open Space Preserve and in Butano State Park are available by reservation. Some campsites are reachable by long trails from the Bayside, such as the Hickory Oaks/Ward Road Trail from Long Ridge OSP to Portola Redwoods State Park. The Hikers’ Hut in Sam McDonald County Park and the Jack Brook Horse Camp in Sam McDonald Park are also available to groups by reservation with San Mateo County Parks Department.
Hidden Villa Hostel at the base of Black Mountain in Los Altos Hills, the first and oldest hostel in the West, is open September through May, but closes in summer to