Head to your right
and pause at the stone bench commemorating Pulitzer
Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner, who lived in
60 South Bay Accent
nearby Portola Valley and helped to conserve this land.
AUTUMN AT LONG Ridge Open Space means blue skies, bronze
hills, and ochre grasses. This peaceful 2,000-acre preserve is wellnamed—
it offers wide ridgetop vistas that extend to the Pacific
Ocean. Below the ridge is shady woodland—a dense canopy
of Douglas fir, oak, bay laurel, and big-leaf maple. Explore the
preserve’s charms on this 4.5-mile hike from the
Grizzly Flat trailhead.
Follow Peters Creek Trail as it switchbacks away
from the highway. Rolling grasslands are framed
by a tall forest of Douglas firs and oaks. At a junction
with Long Ridge Trail, turn left to stay on
Peters Creek Trail and begin a gentle ascent through the forest.
Peters Creek, a major tributary of Pescadero Creek, meanders at
your side. It may be dry or babbling, depending on recent rainfall.
The trail wanders in and out of sun-filled meadows and deep
wooded canyons, passing an abandoned orchard and ranch site.
MODERATE
along the ridgeline
Long Ridge Open Space Preserve
LOS GATOS » 4.5 MILES ROUND-TRIP
The Wallace
Stegner bench
at Long Ridge
Open Space
Preserve