moderate
Activities
Ridge Trail Information
This trail follows the ridgeline and provides sweeping vistas along the entire route. If you’re looking for wildflowers and wildlife in the spring, this is a great place to visit.
Watch for:
Watch the skies for red-tailed hawks, Cooper's hawks and, if you're lucky, golden eagles.
Hiking Details for Ridge Trail
Distance: 3.6 miles
Elevation change: 600 feet
Hiking time: 2 hours
Trail surface: Packed dirt, mostly exposed
Best Season: Spring
Managing agency: Midpeninsula Regional Open Space
Parking lot location: Click here for directions
Overview: The Ridge Trail, which provides beautiful views year round, is particularly nice in spring when wildflowers are in bloom. Poppies and lupine are prevalent, as well as gumweed, mules ears, farewell-to-spring, and brodiaea.
From the Ridge Trail, turn left onto to the Ancient Oaks Trail. Then turn right to stay on Ancient Oaks Trail and then right again onto the Charquin Trail. Finally turn right to return on the Ridge Trail.
From this trail, you can climb to the top of Borel Hill which, as the highest named point in San Mateo County, offers 360 degree views of the Bay Area. It’s worth the extra effort.
Ridge Trail Photo Gallery
More About Russian Ridge Preserve
This 3,137-acre preserve is known for its spring wildflowers, but it has much to offer all year round. It is one of the best places in the Bay Area to see raptors; including red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures, Cooper’s hawks, sharp-skinned hawks and even golden eagles.
Not far from this location is Audrey’s Way at Mindego Gateway, a commemorative site honoring former POST President Audrey C. Rust for her 24 years of conservation leadership. There is an accessible paved pathway, lookout deck and connections to surrounding trails. The site also offers panoramic vistas of protected redwood ridges and undulating hillsides, including Mindego Hill, now part of the Russian Ridge preserve, protected by POST in 2007.