Corte Madera Creek (San Mateo County)

Sausal Creek is a 3.0-mile-long (4.8 km) northwesterly-flowing stream originating in Portola Valley along the northeastern edge of the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, in San Mateo County, California, United States. After being joined by Alambique Creek it flows through Middle Searsville Marsh/Pond before ending at its confluence with Corte Madera Creek in a natural marsh above Searsville Reservoir on Stanford University lands. Below Searsville Reservoir and Dam, Corte Madera Creek joins with Bear Creek to form San Francisquito Creek and flows to San Francisco Bay.

Searsville (c.1854–1891) was a San Mateo County, California town located in what is now the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve on Corte Madera Creek and adjacent to Woodside. At the northwest corner of Sandhill Road and Portola Road is a plaque, and this location has been a California Historical Landmark since 1950.

Searsville Dam is a masonry dam in San Mateo County, California that was completed in 1892, one year after the founding of Stanford University, and impounds Corte Madera Creek (in the San Francisquito Creek watershed) to form a reservoir known as Searsville Reservoir or Searsville Lake. Searsville Dam is located in the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve and is owned and operated by Stanford University. Neighboring cities include Woodside and Portola Valley, California.

Martin Creek, known locally as Dennis Martin Creek, is a 1.4-mile-long (2.3 km) north by northeastward-flowing stream originating just east of Skyline Boulevard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near the community of Skylonda in San Mateo County, California. It flows through the town of Woodside before crossing Portola Road and joining Sausal Creek on Stanford University lands just across the border from Woodside. Sausal Creek enters Searsville Reservoir, which flows to San Francisco Bay via San Francisquito Creek.

Bear Creek, or Bear Gulch Creek, is a 6.6-mile-long (10.6 km) southeastward-flowing stream originating north of the summit of Sierra Morena in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near the community of Kings Mountain in San Mateo County, California, United States. It flows through the town of Woodside. Bear Creek and Corte Madera Creek join to become San Francisquito Creek in the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve at Stanford University.

Alambique Creek, or Arroyo Alembique, is a 2.7-mile-long (4.3 km) stream located in San Mateo County, California, in the United States. It is a tributary to Corte Madera Creek and is part of the San Francisquito Creek watershed.

The Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve is a 483 hectares (1,190 acres) nature preserve and biological field station formally established as a reserve in 1973. The biological preserve is owned by Stanford University, and is part of the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. It is located at 37.408°N 122.2275°W / 37.408; -122.2275 south of Sand Hill Road and west of Interstate 280 in Portola Valley, San Mateo County, California. It is used by students, researchers, and docents to conduct biology research, and teach the community about the importance of that research. The preserve encompasses Jasper Ridge and Searsville Lake (actually a reservoir) and the upper reaches of San Francisquito Creek, along with the latter's Corte Madera Creek and Bear Creek tributaries.

Our Lady of the Wayside Church is a modest church built in 1912 for the then-growing Catholic parish of Portola Valley by a combined effort of Jewish, Protestant and Catholic members of The Family, a San Francisco men's club that owns a nearby rural retreat. The building itself was constructed of steel-reinforced concrete with stucco finish in the Mission Revival style, with the added Georgian element of the main doorway with its scrolled pediment. Mission Revival features include the tiled gable roof with exposed rafter ends, round-arched windows and buttressed side walls.James Rupert Miller, an architect and a member of The Family, gave the assignment of designing the church to a rising young draftsman at his firm: Timothy L. Pflueger. The building was 19-year-old Pflueger's first commission. Pflueger drew on his familiarity with Mission San Francisco de Asís in his native San Francisco for inspiration.In 1977, a plaque was placed proclaiming the building as California Registered Historical Landmark number 909. The church was also added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.The historic church suffered extensive damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and was recommended for demolition by structural experts. Instead, it was repaired by its congregation at a cost of US$600,000.

Charles Brown's saw mill was the first saw mill in Woodside, California in San Mateo County, California. MCharles Brown's saw mill site is a California Historical Landmark No. 478 listed on November 9, 1950. San Mateo County's First Sawmill was built on the banks of Alambique Creek in 1847. San Mateo County's First Sawmill powered by the creek was built by Charles Brown. Also in 1847, a second mill was built on San Francisquito Creek by Dennis Martin. The sawmill design was similar to the famous sawmill at Sutter's Mill at Coloma. Sutter's Mill became famous when James W. Marshall found gold in 1848 at the mill. The find stated the California Gold Rush. Brown's adobe house, built in 1839, still stands today.

The Portola Valley School is a one-room schoolhouse that sits at 775 Portola Road in Portola Valley, California. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It is currently used for Portola Valley town-hall meetings.

Folger Estate Stable Historic District also known as Jones Ranch, Mountain Home Ranch, is located at 4040 Woodside Road in Woodside, California at Wunderlich Park, with the majority of the historic buildings built between 1905 and 1906. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 16, 2004. The historic district is a three-acre site with ten buildings, including the main horse stable building, carriage house, stone walls lining the roads, blacksmith barn, and the cold house.

Thornewood Open Space Preserve is a small regional park located in the Santa Cruz Mountains in San Mateo County. The park lies in the San Francisco Bay Area and is operated by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. It offers approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of hiking and equestrian trails and is dog-friendly. The Schilling Lake Trail leads to Schilling Lake, a protected wildlife habitat. This trail offers brief views of the southern San Francisco Bay, Palo Alto (including Stanford University's Hoover Tower) and surrounding cities, and the Diablo Range. From Schilling Lake, the Bridle Trail leads to Old La Honda Road. The name Thornewood comes from Julian and Edna Bloss Thorne, who developed the land in the 1920s. The Thornes built a house designed by Gardner Daily and surrounded it with extensive gardens. Those gardens included Schilling Lake, named after the nearby August Schilling land. The Thorne and Schilling estates were both part of Rancho Cañada de Raymundo in old California. When Edna Bloss Thorne died in June 1970, she bequeathed the land to the Sierra Club Foundation, with the requirement that the land surrounding her 86-acre summer home be kept as a nature preserve and not developed. The foundation donated the acreage to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District in September 1978.Second-growth redwood trees grow in portions of Thornewood Open Space Preserve, especially by the lake. There are false brome grasses throughout the area.