Hiking possibilities near Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a place that sees many business travelers, some of whom want to combine their visit with some high quality hiking in the California wilderness. Most of these people know about Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks (four hours away), and some know about Big Sur and the Pacific coastline along the PCH (two hours away).
But sometimes these most famous of parks are not suitable. The drives are long, and some of the most famous areas require getting reservations ahead of time for camping, cabins or trails themselves (Half Dome). Also, in winter the higher elevations can be tricky for novice travelers. Are there any high quality hikes that are closer, or overlooked?
I would like this to be a canonical question to service all those business travelers who end up in places like Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Stanford (and many others) and who will probably try googling for their options.
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I live in Sunnyvale and my favorite place for hiking is Rancho San Antonio near the Los Altos Hills. It butts up against the Santa Cruz mountains, and there are a network of trails including some that venture into the mountains. I like this area because there are some great views of the bay, and much of the hiking occurs among the trees (more shade) and there's also a fare amount of wildlife to be seen (wild turkeys, deer, etc.). Also it's quite hilly so you can get a decent workout. Additionally, I believe the trails connect up with the larger network of Santa Cruz Mountain trails of which some across burrow over the mountains all the way to the coast (13 miles.)
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Maybe Pinnacles National Park. Or if you go across the Golden Gate, Point Reyes is gorgeous.
Watch out, because some of the trails in the more remote central coast backcountry areas have not seen any maintenance for a long time, partly due to government budget cuts. I tried to do a long-distance trip there a few years back, and had to turn back due to stuff like the trail heading straight into a steep hillside completely covered in poison oak.
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The Henry W Coe State Park is within reasonable driving range, and offers many hiking trails with good vistas and surprisingly few people. I go into more detail here.
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