A Clear And Sunny Day On Windy Hill

The fog dispersed, the clouds parted, and the sun shined on my College of San Mateo field trip today at Windy Hill Open Space Preserve.

The only way to see this preserve from top to bottom while keeping the hiking distance under six miles is to organize a car shuttle from the parking lot on Portola Road in Portola Valley to the preserve parking lot on Skyline Boulevard. We met at 10:00 AM at the parking lot in Portola Valley next to The Sequoias retirement home. We then carpooled to the northern most Windy Hill parking area along Skyline Boulevard. From there we took the Anniversary Trail, with side trips to the top of both Windy Hill summits. The views of the Pacific Ocean to the west and the cities and bay to the east were outstanding. What was even more amazing was that the wind hadn't come up yet.

We then took the Lost Trail south and then proceeded downhill and eastward on the Hamms Gulch Trail. Despite the drought there were lots of wild flowers in full bloom, especially poppies and columbine. We also enjoyed the sight of checkerbloom, blue-eyed grass, yarrow, oyster root, cow parsnip, Hookers fairy bells, toothwort, Ithureals spear, and a buckeye tree in bloom. We also enjoyed the sight of magnificent Douglas fir and white oaks. We saw a couple of blue-belly lizards and a garter snake on the way down.

The Spring Ridge Trail took us north and back to the parking lot. On the way we paused at Sausal Pond, which is a sag pond on the San Andreas Fault. Sag ponds form where a curve in the fault creates a gap which causes the land to sag and fill with water. In the pond we saw frogs,

fish and a couple of  pond turtles.

The total distance of our adventure was 5.2 miles, mostly downhill.

TO GET THERE... from Highway 280 take Alpine Road  and then go north on Portola Road, or take Sand Hill Road and go south on Portola Road.