Foothills Park

Foothills Open Space Preserve is a 212-acre open space preserve on Page Mill Road in Palo Alto, California. The land for the preserve was gifted to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District in 1974. The preserve's only trail is .4 miles and leads to a hilltop with views of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Hidden Villa is a United States nonprofit educational organization teaching programs on environmental and multicultural awareness. In 1924, Frank and Josephine Duveneck founded this working organic farm and wilderness area on land comprising the upper Adobe Creek watershed on the foothills of Black Mountain in Los Altos Hills, California, part of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Hidden Villa is important historically as the site of the West's first American youth hostel and the nation's first multicultural children's summer camp.

Los Trancos Open Space Preserve is a 274-acre (1.11 km2) open space preserve, located in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, California, near Los Altos Hills, California. The preserve contains about 5 miles (8 km) of hiking trails, of which 2.1 miles (3.4 km) are open to equestrians, and none are open to bicycles. The area was once a part of a 13,300 acre (53.8 km2) rancho. The preserve's acreage was purchased by state senator Louis Oneal in the early 1900s, who raised horses there. It was sold to a developer in the 1950s. Power and water lines were run to the property in the 1960s, but development was abandoned when the city of Palo Alto discovered the high cost of providing city services to the area. The preserve was acquired by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District in 1976. While the preserve is relatively small compared to other preserves and parks in the area, it has one notable feature: about one mile (1.5 km) of the San Andreas Fault runs underneath it. Several series of markers throughout the preserve indicate where the ground has broken during various earthquakes. Additionally, a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) trail follows the main break caused by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. This trail includes several interpretive stations that point out various quake-caused features and phenomenon. Guided "quake walks" are held about once a month. Just northwest of Page Mill Road, the preserve protects the headwaters of Los Trancos Creek, a tributary of San Francisquito Creek.

Palo Alto University (PAU) is a private university in Palo Alto, California that focuses on psychology and counseling. It was founded in 1975 as the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology and became Palo Alto University in 2009. Palo Alto University offers two undergraduate degree programs: a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Social Action and a Bachelor of Science in Business Psychology; four graduate programs: a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology as part of a consortium with Stanford University; an M.A. in Counseling and an M.S. in Psychology. PAU subscribes to the practitioner-scientist training model, which emphasizes clinical practice along with scientific training.PAU has an interconnected relationship with Stanford University and the Stanford University School of Medicine. PAU maintains its doctoral program in conjunction with Stanford University, often employs its students in Stanford research laboratories, and houses faculty members who teach at both institutions. The chair of the Stanford Department of Psychiatry holds a membership on the PAU board of trustees.

Casa de Tableta, now known as the Alpine Inn, and formerly known as Rossotti's Saloon and Zott's, was built c.1851 in Portola Valley, California at the junction of Arastradero Road. It was listed as a California Historical Landmark in 1969 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. As of 2020, it's the second oldest saloon in operation in the state of California.Some additional historical names of the building include Félix Buelna's Casa de Tableta; Fernando's Store; Philpott's; Stanton's Saloon; Chapete's Place; The Wunder; and Schenkel's Picnic Park.

Arastradero Preserve, officially known as Enid W. Pearson–Arastradero Preserve, is a 622 acres (252 hectares) nature preserve that protects most of the Arastradero Creek watershed, including its ephemeral Mayfly Creek tributary. It also includes the upper reach of the Felt Creek tributary to Stanford's Felt Reservoir. The preserve is owned and operated by the City of Palo Alto, California. The main parking lot hosts an interpretive center and is located at 1530 Arastradero Road (37°23'13" N, 122°10'29" W).

Woodside Priory School (commonly known as The Priory) is an independent, co-educational, Benedictine Catholic, college-preparatory, day and boarding school in Portola Valley, California, United States. It is located within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco and is thirty minutes from San Francisco to the north and San Jose to the south.

Arastradero Creek is a mainly seasonal 2.4-mile-long (3.9 km) generally north by northeastward-flowing stream originating in the Palo Alto foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is almost wholly protected by the Pearson–Arastradero Preserve, before joining Matadero Creek where its waters descend to San Francisco Bay.

Rancho Cañada del Corte de Madera was a 3,566-acre (14.43 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Santa Clara County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to José Domingo Peralta and Máximo Martínez. The name translates as "the valley where lumber is cut". The grant was located west of today's I-280, and south of San Francisquito Creek near Searsville Lake, and covered most of the Portola Valley.

Rancho el Corte de Madera was a 13,316-acre (53.89 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Santa Clara County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Máximo Martínez. The name translates as "the place where lumber is cut". The roughly triangular shaped grant was west of today's I-280, and bounded on the north by Alambique Creek and San Francisquito Creek, on the south by Los Trancos Creek and Matadero Creek, and on the west by what is now Skyline Boulevard. The grant surrounded Rancho Cañada del Corte de Madera which extended along the Portola Valley. The land grant included parts of present day Woodside, Ladera and Stanford University.

Portola Valley is a town in San Mateo County, California, United States. Located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the Bay Area, Portola Valley is a small, wealthy community nestled on the eastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Windy Hill Open Space Preserve is a regional park located in San Mateo County, California and operated by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD). It is readily identifiable from the flatlands of the South Bay, as it is the only "naked" part of the peninsula range (not forested). The Windy Hill Preserve comprises an important 1132 acre (4.6 km2) stretch of conservation land on the eastward side of the Peninsula Range (Santa Cruz Mountains), rising from the valley road near Portola Valley to the 1905 ft (581 m) summit from which it gets its name. Access to the summit is easy (0.5 mile moderate grade) from State Route 35, the ridge road along the Peninsula Range. Facilities focus on trails for hiking and mountain biking, with around 14 miles (22 km) of hiking trails. Paragliding and hang gliding are permitted with a special use permit, and are popular activities in the winter months when there are East winds. In clear weather there are magnificent views from the summit, and indeed the entire upper end of the park, across the campus of Stanford University to the San Francisco Bay and beyond to Mount Tamalpais and Mount Diablo. Downtown San Francisco is visible, as well as the Pacific Ocean. Most of Windy Hill is sheltered from the prevailing weather, which comes in off of the Pacific Ocean. A nice day further down can be very cold, windy, foggy or rainy at the summit. The area is rich in wildlife; among the species likely to be seen are California mule deer, coyote, California vole, white-tailed kite, American kestrel, band-tailed pigeon and California quail. There are signs warning about mountain lions, but bobcats are more common. Rattlesnakes and gopher snakes may also be found. Banana slugs and, in season, California newts are common. Spring Ridge Trail runs from the Portola Valley trailhead to Skyline Boulevard through the open, grassy part of the preserve. It, like most of the lower trails, is a fire road, open to cyclists as well as hikers and equestrians. Two trails further to the south (Hamms Gulch and the Lost Trail-Razorback Ridge-Eagle Trail combination), are single-tracks not open to cyclists. These trails run through forested country: oak, fir, buckeye, bay laurel, madrone and one or two redwoods. Because the far shore rises so steeply, Sausal Pond appears to be black or murky green, rather than sky-blue. This marshy pond is home to a few coots and the occasional mallard, to dragonflies and bullfrogs. Shoreline access is limited to not more than one or two hundred feet, much of that surrounded by bush and accessible only to the determined.