Edgewood Park and Natural Preserve in Redwood City is one of the multitude parks and preserves perfect for family hiking in San Francisco Bay Area along HW 280 corridor. It is one of my favorite parks for many reasons.
We love Edgewood because:
- It is easily accessible right off HW 280
- It has 2 entrances: from HW 280/Canada Rd. side and from Edgewood Rd. side (which is the main entrance with a visitor’s center). These two entrances will lead you to two different habitats (it is like visiting 2 different parks). The trails starting from the main entrance go through a shaded wooded area, where you can see various trees and bushes and their inhabitants. The trail starting next to HW 280 will lead you through open meadows, where you will walk through grassland.
3. Edgewood Park is a great place to see California wildflowers (on the grasslands side). Sometimes you will see fields of flowers of the same type, sometimes you will encounter unique flowers that will pop up only once but all of them will be immensely beautiful.
4. The Park is teaming with wildlife. You may encounter deer, geckos, gophers, etc.
Sometimes, it is hard to detect certain reclusive wildlife but you will definitely see a lot of their “houses” (you can’t miss a prominent woodrat house):
5. The grasslands area is also perfect for bird watching. Each time we go we see at least half a dozen species of birds: hawks, quails, blue jays and many others.
6. During the entire year the Park organizes various free guided tours departing from the visitor’s center. Often, a couple of tours start at the same time and the Park guides assess the crowd and separate people so that families go on an easier route and the narration is adapted to kids level. When we were on the tour our guide was even playing scavenger hunt game with all the kids to keep them interested and involved and everybody seem to enjoy it.
7. If you miss the guided tour for whatever reason you can do a scavenger hunt on your own. The Park has a second dedicated website (not the county one) called “Friends of Edgewood” that has a lot of information about Edgewood including printouts for scavenger hunt games on their website that you can print and take with you on a hike.
8. The Park has a variety of hikes suitable for any time of the year and any level of hiking ability.
Overall Edgewood Park and Nature Preserve is a great escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. We are very lucky to have it in our backyard. There are a couple of things that you definitely want to take with you on a hike through Edgewood:
If you found this family road trip itinerary useful, please do me a little favor and share this information with others, for there’s a good chance that it will help them with their travel plans. 🙂
