A Downhill Hike at Windy Hill Open Space

Last Saturday, the final field trip for my Foothill College hiking class, we let gravity do most of the work by starting at the Skyline Boulevard (uphill) end of the preserve and dropped 1,500 feet downhill for 5 miles to the Portola Road (downhill) entrance. Because a loop hike would be 8.9 miles, and I limit my field trips to a maximum of 6 miles, this preserve only works with a car shuttle.

We gathered at the Windy Hill parking lot on Portola Road in Portola Valley, next to The Sequoias retirement home. From there we carpooled north on Portola Road, west on Highway 84, and south on Skyline Boulevard, to the Windy Hill parking lot. We started out with a .7 mile side trip to the 1,800 foot summit of Windy Hill to enjoy magnificent views of the Bay Area and the Ocean. A wild fuchsia was in bloom on the summit.

From there it was all downhill. We paused to admire some huge Douglas fir trees with giant limbs straining and twisting their way toward sunlight. We also stopped to look at bright red toyon berries, madrone berries, lichen on oak trees, and oak galls. Best of all were the bright yellow leaves of the big leaf maple, in full fall fo

liage. At the end of our ramble we passed Sausal Pond, which is a sag pond formed along the San Andreas Fault.

TO GET THERE... From Highway 280 take Alpine Road or Sand Hill Road to Portola Road in the town of Portola Valley. There is also an entrance on Skyline Boulevard 2.3 miles south of Highway 84, and 4.9 miles north of Page Mill Road.

A Wildlife Walk at Ano Nuevo State Reserve

Many people think the only good time to visit Ano Nuevo is December to March, when the bulls arrive to fight over breeding space and territory, and the females follow to bear their pups and breed. The truth is that this is one of the world's great marine wildlife preserves, and every time of year has its rewards.

On November 2 I lead my Foothill College class on a 4.7 mile ramble from the main parking lot. After visiting the museum that used to be a dairy barn we headed westward above the coastal bluffs overlooking the Pacific. We stopped at the pond to see lots of birds, including brown pelicans, who were out in abundance. We continued west to the staging area at the entrance to the natural preserve, where the sand dunes begin. Nature docents were on hand to provide skulls, fur, whiskers, and other objects for us to touch.

After trudging over sand, we stopped to see shell and chert fragments at an ancient Ohlone Indian shell mound. Then we stopped at Bight Beach, where a docent had a spotting scope trained on Ano Nuevo Island, where hundreds of sea lions hang out. The highlight was at the North Point overlook, where we got a close up view of hundreds of juvenile elephant seals, who come to shore to build up there bone density by hauling themselves out of the water. The yearlings were closest to us. The older males were in the distance practicing combat maneuvers which will determine their rank and mating privileges later in life. We also got a close look at a sea otter that swam just offshore, followed by an opportunistic gull.

Heading back to the pond, we descended the trail to Cove beach to get out of the wind and to enjoy lunch. After lunch we stopped to examine a praying mantis along the trail.

TO GET THERE... The entrance to Ano Nuevo is on the west side of Highway 1 about 19 miles north of Santa Cruz and 23 miles south of Half Moon Bay.