within a mile on either side. However, the lovely water temple and its reflecting pool and grounds, open to pedestrians and bicyclists, make a fine destination from either end of the trail.
Jurisdiction: San Mateo County: 650-363-4020
Facilities: Trail for hikers and equestrians
Rules: Open from 8 A.M. to sunset; no bicycles
Maps: San Mateo County Mid-County Trails; USGS topos San Mateo and Woodside
How to Get There: From I-280: (1) North entrance: (a) Southbound—Take Half Moon Bay exit to Skyline Blvd. (Hwy 35), go south to Hwy 92, and then turn east. Turn south on Cañada Rd. and go 0.2 mile to trail entrance on west side of road just opposite the Ralston Trail/I-280 Overcrossing Trail junction; (b) Northbound— Take Hwy 92 exit west to Cañada Rd. Turn south for 0.2 mile to trail entrance. (2) South entrance: Take Edgewood Rd. exit, go west to Edgewood/Cañada Rd. intersection, where there is parking. No parking at Raymundo Drive cul-de-sac entrance to Huddart Park. Note: No parking is allowed on Cañada Rd. Canada Rd. is closed to motor-vehicle traffic from the intersection of Hwy 92 to Edgewood Rd. for “Bicycle Sunday,” a popular event held every Sunday year-round.
HIGHWAY 92 TO EDGEWOOD AND CAÑADA ROADS
Lakeside views give way to broad, parklike meadows set against a backdrop of wooded slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Distance: 4 miles one way
Time: 2 hours
Elevation Change: Relatively level
The trip south begins on a path departing from a point on Cañada Road, 0.2 mile south of Highway 92 and just across the road from the western entrance to the Ralston Trail/I-280 Overcrossing. You can also walk north along this unimproved lakeside trail as far as the intersection of Highway 92 and Skyline Boulevard. At times the trail swings away from the road, coming close to the lake, or leads down below road level through oak groves.
The lake is a resting place for water birds on the Pacific Flyway, so take your binoculars. Even without them you will easily identify the big, brownish Canada geese that winter here. Flocks of them often gather along the shores. In the early morning and evening you may see herds of deer grazing in the fields or drinking at the water’s edge.
Soon after the trail leaves the lakeside, it passes the point where the Sheep Camp Trail joins the east side of Cañada Road. From here to the Pulgas Water Temple the trail is on a bank above the road. The Water Temple grounds, re-opened on October 25, 2004, the temple’s 70th birthday, are open to the public from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. daily, and include lawns for picnicking and sunning, and the Water Temple itself. At the end of a long reflecting pool is the classic little Pulgas Water Temple, where waters from high in the Sierra thunder into the sluiceway to the Crystal Springs lakes. Inscribed around the pediment are words from the Book of Isaiah, “I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people.”
Continuing south you see on the valley floor to the west open fields and groves of stately oaks, a part of the Filoli estate, which once belonged to W.B. Bourn, president of the Spring Valley Water Company. The name for the estate was coined by Bourn from “Fight,” “Love,” and “Live,” taken from “Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, and live a good life.” A later owner, Mrs. William Roth, changed the “fight” to “fidelity.” Designed by Willis Polk and completed in 1917, Filoli was the last of the great mansions built in San Mateo County.
Crystal Springs Trail from Cañada Road
Filoli was purchased by the Roth family in 1934, and Mrs. Roth gave the estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1975. The Filoli Center, a nonprofit organization, operates the center. The mansion is hardly visible from the trail, but its beautiful formal gardens and the mansion itself, as well as its nature trails, are open for tours by arrangement with the Filoli Center.
From the Filoli gates your trail passes more oak-bordered meadows to reach the stone gates at the foot of Edgewood Road, the end of this trip. From there the Crystal Springs Trail continues on to Huddart Park.
EDGEWOOD AND CAÑADA ROADS TO HUDDART PARK
A short trip over a hill through the Watershed and down to West Union Creek in Huddart Park.
Distance: 2.4 miles one way
Time: 1¼ hours
Elevation Change: 200’ gain
As you pass the stone gates at the foot of Edgewood Road, fields extend on either side of Cañada Road. Come this way in April and May to see some of the Peninsula’s most dazzling displays of wildflowers. They thrive on the thin, magnesium-rich soil over serpentine rock outcroppings. Swatches of intense blue larkspur bloom against great drifts of cream cups, goldfields, poppies, lupines, and owl’s clover. Admire these flowers from the roadside paths, photograph or paint them, but do not cross the fence and walk among them. The fields have been set aside as a preserve in the Watershed, and these flowers, if left undisturbed, will continue to bloom year after year to amaze and delight your great-grandchildren.
Where Cañada Road turns east to cross under the freeway, the trail continues south beside the freeway for nearly a mile between wire fences, the freeway on one side and the Watershed lands on the other. It’s not so attractive a stretch for walkers, but the cinderpath surface is popular with equestrians and joggers.
The Crystal Springs Trail emerges from the cinderpath at Runnymede Road at the Woodside town boundary. From here another fenced trail goes about a mile across a corner of the Watershed and south on an easement to Raymundo Drive. From this point walk west on Raymundo Drive 0.2 mile to its cul-de-sac.
The trail leaves the south side of the cul-de-sac, descending into oak woods on switchbacks for 0.3 mile to the redwood groves beside West Union Creek. Here a footbridge takes you across to forested Huddart Park. The Crystal Springs Trail continues upstream by the creek, then turns up through the park on the 3.5-mile trip to the Skyline described in An All-Day Hike Circling the Park, the first trip in the section on Huddart Park. Access to the Phleger Estate also is possible from this trail.
For groups with a backpack excursion in mind, there is a trail camp (by reservation) about 1.25 miles up the trail on the park’s secluded north side. From there you can explore the miles of trail in the park, or climb up the mountainside to the Skyline Trail (and Bay Area Ridge Trail route) across to Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve.
The Ralston Bike Trail/I-280 Overcrossing
A wide, mile-long pedestrian, equestrian, and bicycle path and freeway overpass crosses high above 10-lane Junipero Serra Freeway, I-280, at its interchange with Highway 92. It connects the bike path on Ralston Avenue in Belmont to Cañada Road north of the Sheep Camp Trail junction.
Jurisdiction:
