Shoreline
at Mountain View,City of Mountain View,
Santa Clara County
In brief:
4.9 mile loop on trails fronting San Francisco Bay.
Getting there:
From US 101 in Santa Clara County, exit Shoreline Boulevard (exit #399). Drive northeast about 1 mile on Shoreline Boulevard, through the gates into Shoreline at Mountain View. Once past the entrance gate, drive about 1 mile to the parking lot at the end of the road (near the lake).
Trailhead details:
No parking or entrance fees. Lots of parking in several lots. Designated handicapped parking is available, and trails are wheelchair accessible. Wheelchair-accessible restrooms, drinking fountains, and pay phone in the building near the lake; there are other phones, fountains, restrooms and portable toilets at a few other locations in the park. Santa Clara VTA services Shoreline's western edge via buses 47, 104, and 520.
Gas, food, and lodging:
There's a small casual restaurant at the lake, and another more sit-down establishment near the golf course. Gas back near 101. No camping in the park.
Rules:
No horses or dogs. Bicycles are restricted from some trails. Park is open from 6 a.m. to 1/2 hour after sunset.
Distance, category, and difficulty:
This 4.9 mile out and back hike is easy. Shoreline trails are almost completely flat.
The Official Story:
Mountain View's Shoreline page http://www.ci.mtnview.ca.us/city_hall/comm_services/shoreline_regional_wildlife_area/default.asp(
Shoreline info 650-903-6392
Palo Alto Baylands page
Map Choices:
• Use AAA's San Francisco Bay Region map to get there
• Map from Mountain View's website (paper maps are available at the park upstairs at Rengstorff House)
• Baylands map
• Bay Trail's website has a simple map and descriptions of the Bay Trail segment through Shoreline
Shoreline
in a nutshell -- a printable, text-only guide to the featured hike.• View photos from this hike
Shoreline at Mountain View (that is the somewhat snobbish but official name) is
more
than a park, it's a recreation extravaganza, with a golf course, restaurants,
a boating lake, kite flying field, and miles of trails. All the facilities are
well used, but most people seem to show up at Shoreline for a walk or run. You'll
see seniors and young moms, high school runners, and tech folks on their lunch
hours, taking advantage of the flat paved and dirt paths around the lake and
bay. A string of parks and preserves allows hikers to explore the bay to the north and south, with Shoreline as a logical staging area. The Bay Trail ties together Mountain View's Shoreline with Palo Alto's Baylands, and when new segments are completed the trail will reach Sunnyvale's Baylands. Hikers can stick to the Bay Trail, which runs rather uncomfortably close to the highway at times, or can choose to walk along the levee trails which stretch out to meet the bay.
Near Shoreline trails buzz with human activity and traffic noise, but
out on the levees and sloughs of Baylands only airplanes from nearby Palo Alto
Airport compete with the sound of the wind and birdsong. Shoreline and Baylands
harbor lots of wildlife, and you might see common birds such as ducks, avocets,
swallows, sandpipers, and white pelicans, along with more unusual creatures
like jackrabbits and burrowing owls. The breezy trails along the bay are cool even when the rest of the bay area is sweltering. The same windy conditions will chill you to the bone in winter, so dress accordingly.
Start at the parking lot near Shoreline Lake. Begin walking on a paved trail to the right of the boathouse. Unsigned paths scatter in many directions, but just aim for the trail closest to the lake's (artifical) shore. Attractively manicured lawns and landscaped grounds dotted with shade trees are soothingly lush even in summer. Some visitors are content to sit near the lake on a bench or under a tree with a book. If you decide to loll about, check where you sit, because the park's collection of tame Canada
geese
poop in the grass (and everywhere else). At 0.28 mile, a gravel trail continues
around the lake, while the paved path veers right. Stay on the pavement and
bear right.After a short rise, the trail drops down to meet another paved path. Stay to the left. Salt ponds and Mountain View Slough sit to the right. The flat trail is lined with fennel, wild radish, and mustard. At 0.57 mile, ignore a path heading left back toward the lake and stay to the right. You'll pass a closed levee trail on the right and to the left, Coast Casey Forebay, a small marshy patch popular with ducks, then reach an unsigned junction at 0.82 mile. A new viewing platform perches above the marsh to the right, while on the left there's a small pump building peppered with swallow nests. The Bay Trail heads to the left, but turn right.
A flat dirt trail bisects Charleston Slough and the Palo Alto Flood Basin.
As
you leave Shoreline and enter Baylands (a transition marked by a sign), look
to the left for a group of white pelicans. If you stop to read a series of interpretive
signs, you'll learn about the residents and ecology of this marsh. Off in the
nearby mudflat, egrets and sandpipers hunt in a calm zen-like state, while other
birds swoop overhead, occasionally dropping in a freefall straight into the
water, often emerging with a mouthful of food. Along the path you might see
pickleweed, dock, elderberry, coyote brush, New Zealand spinach, and a single
bush of tree tobacco. The trail snakes north, eventually curving to the left
and reaching the bay. Benches are available for rest stops. On a clear day,
you'll have sweeping views west to the Santa Cruz Mountains, and east to Mission
Peak and the surrounding hills. Riprap protects the banks of the levee against
the bay to the right, incidentally providing habitat for some stoic ground squirrels.
The
Dumbarton Bridge is visible to the north. You can continue on the trail further
north into Baylands, but the turnaround point for this hike is at 2.45 miles
(at the 4-mile marker). Retrace your steps back to the unsigned junction
at the northwest side of Shoreline Lake, just past Coast Casey Forebay (at
4.34 miles).Although you can walk part of the way around the lake, the golf course grounds block a complete circuit. (If you care to extend this hike, turn right, follow along the lake, then turn left where permitted, bisect the golf course, cross Permanente Creek, turn left, pass Rengstorff House and return to the parking lot.) Pass through the wooden stile and walk east (left) along the lake.
The flat gravel trail follows the contour of the shoreline. If you're visiting on a temperate day, there'll likely be a swarm of rental boats zipping across the water. At 4.60 miles, the gravel path ends back at a previously encountered junction. Turn right and retrace your steps back to the trailhead.
Total distance: 4.88 miles
Last hiked: Friday, August 10, 2001
