Feeling Small on Skyline

Up on Skyline

I have lived in the Bay Area long enough to think I knew where the good views were. Then I drove up Skyline Boulevard and spent a day in two open space preserves I had never set foot in: Purisima Creek Redwoods and El Corte de Madera Creek.

Some of the best views I have ever experienced were a short drive from home the whole time.

Purisima Creek Redwoods

I started from the top, on the North Ridge Trail. Within minutes the trees opened up and the whole coast spread out below me: rolling hills folding down toward Half Moon Bay, and the Pacific sitting quietly past them.

Rolling hills and a dry meadow falling toward Half Moon Bay, with Pillar Point and the harbor beyond

Green ridges under a grey sky past bright scrub

Fields running down toward the coast behind wildflowers

Morning fog drifting over green hills toward the sea

Fog spilling through redwoods with the Pacific beyond

Forested slopes dropping toward the coast and the blue Pacific

From there I dropped down the Harkins Ridge Trail. It is a long descent, and every turn gave me another look across the redwood hills, ridge after ridge of green with nothing man-made in sight. It felt untouched in a way I did not expect to find this close to the city.

Hikers far down the wide dirt trail through a forested canyon

Forested ridges folding toward the hazy coast

A dark forested ridge falling into the valley

A steep hillside thick with redwoods and firs

Mist rising between dark trees and the ridge beyond

A forested slope disappearing into cloud

Fog on the ridgeline above a forested valley

Redwood canopy stretching across the hills

Then came the part my legs still remember. I hiked back up through Whittemore Gulch, where the trail climbs under the redwoods and the air gets cool and quiet. It is a real climb. It is also the most peaceful hard work I have done in a long time.

Sunlight on ferns and grass on the forest floor

A shaded creek running over rocks under the redwoods

El Corte de Madera Creek

A few miles down Skyline, El Corte de Madera Creek Preserve felt completely different. Where Purisima is all ridgelines and open views, El Corte de Madera pulls you into the forest. Redwoods, firs, and madrones close in overhead, and the trails wind through shade the whole way.

The valley and the bay glimpsed through dark firs

Ferns and saplings in the shade of the forest

The reason most people come is the Tafoni sandstone, and it earns it. Tucked into a ravine off the Tafoni Trail, a huge sandstone boulder is carved into honeycomb hollows and delicate ridges, shaped by rain and time over hundreds of years. Standing on the viewing deck, it looked less like a rock and more like something sculpted. You are not allowed to touch it, and you will not want to.

Tafoni sandstone hollowed into honeycomb holes and thin ridges

A wide cavity edged with lacy sandstone ridges

Layers of honeycomb hollows in the boulder

An oval hollow among small holes in pale sandstone

Feeling Small

Most of my weeks are spent building things and solving problems. Out here there was nothing to fix. Just trees older than anything I will ever build, hills rolling all the way to the ocean, and a quiet that settled in after the first mile.

It made me feel small, in the best way. I left more relaxed than I have been in months, and already planning when to go back.

If You Go

	Purisima Creek Redwoods	El Corte de Madera Creek
Route	North Ridge, down Harkins Ridge, up Whittemore Gulch	Tafoni Trail to the sandstone viewing deck
Distance	About 6.4 mi loop, 1,770 ft gain	About 1 mi to the formation
Parking	North Ridge lot on Skyline Blvd	Skeggs Point on Skyline, trailhead across the road
Dogs	Not allowed	Not allowed

Both preserves are run by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District and sit a few miles apart on Skyline, so they pair easily in one day. Start Purisima from the top and save the Whittemore Gulch climb for the end. At El Corte de Madera, take the short detour on the Fir Trail to the vista point before the Tafoni.

Sources

• Purisima loop distance and gain, The Outbound

• El Corte de Madera Creek Preserve, Midpen

• Tafoni Trail route, Sempervirens Fund

• Tafoni formation, Bay Nature