Sausal
Pond Loop,
Windy Hill Open Space Preserve,
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District,
San Mateo County
In brief:
1.6 mile loop around Sausal Pond.
Getting there:
The east entrance is a parking lot (built in 1999) off Portola Road in Portola
Valley. From Highway 280 in San Mateo County, exit Alpine Road (exit 22). Head
west about 3 miles and turn right onto Portola Road. Drive about 1 mile and
turn left into the parking lot.
Trailhead details:
Good size parking lot (may get crowded on weekends). No entrance or parking
fees. Wheelchair-accessible pit toilet, and two designated handicapped
parking spots. Trails are wheelchair accessible, but you'll probably need
assistance, and won't be able to go beyond the junction with Spring Ridge Trail.
Maps available at information signboard. Windy Hill's other
main trailhead is on Skyline Boulevard (Highway 35) about 2.5 miles south
of Highway 84, 5 miles north of Page Mill Road. Roadside parking is available
in a few places along Skyline (at the start of the Upper Razorback Ridge Trail,
the start of the Spring Ridge Trail, and the connector spur to the Lost Trail).
SamTrans bus #282 services the Portola Valley trailhead (weekdays) via Portola
Road: visit the Transit
Info website for details.
Gas, food, and lodging:
Gas, pay phone, and deli near the junction of Portola and Alpine. More restaurants,
stores, and gas stations closer to Highway 280 on Alpine Road. No camping in
the preserve.
Rules:
A few trails are multi-use. Most are open to equestrians and hikers only, but
seasonally closed for horses. Two trails are designated hiking only. Leashed
dogs are permitted on the hike described below; they are not allowed on every
Windy Hill trail.
Distance, category, and difficulty:
This 1.6 mile loop hike is easy. There are two main trailheads: the Portola
Valley Trailhead elevation is under 600 feet. The Skyline Boulevard Trailhead
elevation is about 1800 feet. From either trailhead, you can create easy or
moderate hikes on mostly level trails, but as soon as you start climbing or
descending, the hiking will be a bit more challenging.
The Official Story:
MROSD's
Windy Hill page
MROSD field office 650-691-1200
Map Choices:
• Use AAA's San Francisco Bay Region map to get there.
• Map
from MROSD (download Windy Hill pdf).
• 
Peninsula Tales
and Trails, by David Weintraub (order
this book from Amazon.com) has an overview of the preserve, descriptions
of hikes, and simple maps.
• Peninsula Trails, by Jean Rusmore, has a simple map and trail
descriptions (order
this book from Amazon.com).
• Tom Taber's The Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Book has a simple map
and preserve descriptions (order
this book from Amazon.com).
• Jean Rusmore's The Bay Area Ridge Trail (order
this book from Amazon.com) book has a simple map and preserve descriptions.
• Trail Map of the Southern Peninsula, published by The Trail Center
(order
this map from Amazon.com), is a good map of the preserve, but doesn't show
the Sausal Trail..
• If your computer has a Windows or Apple os, you can view a Quicktime
photo of the summit at Virtualparks.
Windy Hill is a great preserve
improved in 1999 by more convenient eastern access. I've grown fond of
the trails at Windy Hill, but I've never enjoyed finishing any of my hikes with
a long ascent, and that had been inevitable with the preserve's main trailhead
along Skyline Boulevard, near Windy Hill's highest point. Particularly strenuous
was a return climb up Spring Ridge Trail, which seems to just shoot straight
uphill, with no shade. The new parking lot off of Portola Road enables hikers
to start and finish at the preserve's lowest elevation. It has also transformed
Windy Hill into a preserve to visit when you have limited time, with close proximity
to Highway 280.
The most prominent feature of the
preserve is the grassy belvedere near the trailhead on Skyline Boulevard. The
hilltop is a short walk from the parking lot along the Anniversary Trail, and
the 360° views on a clear day are spectacular. From the crest Spring Ridge
Trail drops through grassland down into Portola Valley. Hamms Gulch Trail and
Razorback Ridge Trail are reasonably graded, with lots of switchbacks, and shade
from coast live oak and Douglas fir. A nice long (7.2 miles) loop combining
Lost Trail, Razorback Ridge Trail, 
Eagle
Trail, and Hamms Gulch Trail takes you through many lovely areas of the preserve,
and is cool even in summer. When the weather is breezy a hike along the
Spring Ridge Trail reminds you that Windy Hill is well-named, and in the spring
the wildflowers put on a show visible from the Anniversary Trail.
For the featured hike, an exploration
of the preserve's east side, park at the lot off of Portola Road and take
the short connector to a signed junction where Sausal Trail sets out to
the west. Dog walkers, cyclists, and equestrians use these trails, so keep
alert. Turn left and walk a few steps to Sausal Pond. This section of
the preserve borders a retirement community, the Sequoias. With property like
this at your back door, sign me up now! You never get a real quiet hiking experience
in this eastern part of Windy Hill, with the activity around the Sequoias and
the attendant civilization buzz from Portola Valley. The roar of a distant
chainsaw has followed me around these trails more than once. The ducks
at Sausal Pond treat you like they've never seen a human before, quacking and
flapping and putting on a good show. 
You
can get close to the shore of the pond in a few places, and it's a nice place
to eat lunch or sit in the sun. The trail is mostly level as it departs
from the pond and then winds uphill through valley and coast live oak trees,
coyote brush, common snowberry shrubs, blackberry bushes, and patches of grass.
After hiking about 0.7 mile, you'll reach a signed junction. Turn right.
Spring Ridge Trail climbs through coyote brush
and coast live oaks. At about 0.9 mile, you'll reach a signed junction. Turn
right onto Betsy Crowder Trail.
This 0.6 mile segment built by MROSD staff
in 1999, was renamed in memory of board director Crowder, who was killed in
an accident in 2000. The trail, open to hikers and equestrians (although
seasonally closed to horses) descends gently, entering a meadow where it is
common to see deer. As the sounds of Sausal Pond drift up from the east, Betsy
Crowder Trail enters a shady stretch. You may see madrone, buckeye, oaks,
and toyon. In autumn, downed leaves provide a satisfying crunch underfoot. In
spring, look for hound's tongue, milkmaids, and giant trillium. The pond is
only visible as snatches of water seen through the trees to the right. As you
near the end of the trail a private road comes in to view on the left. At
the signed junction turn left and retrace your steps to the parking area.
Total distance: about 1.6 miles
Last hiked: Wednesday, October 6, 1999
Go to Bay Area Hiker Home page
Sausal
Pond Loop,
