Note: We welcome you to enjoy a walk in a park or an open space preserve while maintaining social distancing of more than 6 feet from persons outside of your household. When letting others pass on trails, be aware of snakes, ticks, Poison Oak and your footing when making room off the trail. In order to help stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health of the public and staff, please follow the Santa Clara County Health Order.
Open Space Preserves
The mission of Open Space is to protect and interpret the resources and wildlife entrusted to Palo Alto for the enjoyment of future generations. The preserves offer trails from the marshes of the bay to the redwoods of the Santa Cruz mountains.
- The Baylands Preserve has some of the last remaining salt marsh and mud flat habitats on the west coast. It offers excellent birding year round.
- Pearson-Arastradero Preserve is a beautiful mixture of rolling grassland and broadleaf evergreen forest. Each area of the preserve has something different: views of the bay, a quiet grassland stroll, or a snooze by the lake.
- Esther Clark Nature Preserve is a good place for quiet meditation or watching the sun set.
- Foothills Park is a 1,400-acre preserve with rugged chaparral, woodland, fields, and a lake. Hike on 15 miles of trail, have a picnic, or enjoy spectacular views of the bay from Vista Hill. This park is open to Palo Alto residents and their accompanied guests only.
- Open Space offers a variety of nature programs, hikes, camps, walks, and other activities in the preserves. Activities and Programs
- Visit the parks map for location and addresses of the open space preserves as well as neighborhood parks. Open Space trail map.
- All Open Space Nature Preserves are open daily from 8:00 am until sunset, every day of the year. 2020 Park Hours | 2021 Park Hours
Contact Us
Open Space, Parks & Golf Administration
3201 East Bayshore Road
Palo Alto, California 94303
Phone: 650-496-6962
Fax: 650-496-5925
open.space@cityofpaloalto.org
Baylands Nature Preserve
2500 Embarcadero Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Phone: 650-617-3156
Fax: 650-496-5925
Location Map
Baylands Nature Center
2775 Embarcadero Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Phone: 650-329-2506
Fax: 650-493-5239
Location Map
Esther Clark Preserve
End of Old Trace Road, off Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, CA
Phone: 650-329-2423
Location Map
Foothills Park
3300 Page Mill Road
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Phone: 650-329-2423
Fax: 650-917-9647
Location Map
Pearson-Arastradero Preserve
1530 Arastradero Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Phone: 650-329-2423
Fax: 650-917-9647
Location Map