The Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve is located on the western slopes of historic Kings Mountain in

Woodside, California Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. Woodside is among the wealthiest communities in the United States, home to many technology billionaires and investment manager ...

. This preserve was established with a $2 million

gift A gift or a present is an item given to someone without the expectation of payment or anything in return. An item is not a gift if that item is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation ...

from the

Save the Redwoods League Save the Redwoods League is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and restore coast redwood (''Sequoia sempervirens'') and giant sequoia (''Sequoiadendron giganteum'') trees through the preemptive purchase of development rights ...

. Purisima Creek and several of its tributaries flow through the preserve. The main entrance for the Purisima Open Space is off the

Skyline Boulevard A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land. City skyline ...

section of State Route 35. The park is notable for its tall coastal redwoods, along with coastal scrub and

hardwood forests Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These f ...

tanoak ''Notholithocarpus densiflorus'', commonly known as the tanoak or tanbark-oak, is a broadleaf tree in the family Fagaceae, and the type species of the genus ''Notholithocarpus''. It is native to the far western United States, particularly Oregon ...

madrone ''Arbutus'' is a genus of 12 accepted speciesAct. Bot. Mex no.99 Pátzcuaro abr. 2012.''Arbutus bicolor''/ref> of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islan ...

s, and

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

s. The preserve overlooks

Half Moon Bay Half Moon Bay is a coastal city in San Mateo County, California, United States, approximately south of San Francisco. Its population was 11,795 as of the 2020 census. Immediately at the north of Half Moon Bay is Pillar Point Harbor and the un ...

, and has over of trails for hiking, bicycling, and horseback riding. The popular Redwood Trail is wheelchair accessible. Like many parks in California, dogs are not allowed. The preserve is home to many species of animals, including bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes and rabbits. The Purisima Open Space is part of the

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Formed in 1972 by voter initiative, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is a non-enterprise special district in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has acquired and preserved a regional green belt of open space land and provides o ...

, spanning over in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Parking is available at the main entrance, south of Highway 92 on Skyline Boulevard.

Photo gallery

File:Purisima Creek Trail 4.JPG , Purisima Creek Trail File:Purisima_Creek_Trail_11.JPG , Another view of the trail Image:Purisima Creek vista.jpg, Vista Image:Purisima Creek madrone.jpg,

Pacific Madrone ''Arbutus menziesii'' or Pacific madrone (commonly madrone or madrona in the United States and arbutus in Canada), is a species of broadleaf evergreen tree in the family Ericaceae, native to the western coastal areas of North America, from Br ...

''(Arbutus menziesii)'' File:Purisima Creek Trail 9.JPG , Footbridge along Purisima Creek Trail Image:Purisima Creek Bigleaf Maple.jpg,

Bigleaf Maple ''Acer macrophyllum'', the bigleaf maple or Oregon maple, is a large deciduous tree in the genus '' Acer''. It is native to western North America, mostly near the Pacific coast, from southernmost Alaska to southern California. Some stands are al ...

''(Acer macrophyllum)'' File:Purisima Creek Trail 3.JPG, Purisima Creek File:Purisima Creek Trail 6.JPG , Another view of the creek File:Banana slug on Purisima Creek Trail.JPG ,

Banana slug Banana slugs are North American terrestrial slugs comprising the genus ''Ariolimax''. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Ariolimax Mörch, 1859. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p= ...

on Purisima Creek Trail File:Purisima Creek Trail 8.JPG , Tree canopies in the Preserve

References

Openspace.org: Purisima Creek Open Space PreserveOpenspace.org: homepage

Save the Redwoods League
Protected areas of San Mateo County, California Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Nature reserves in California Coast redwood groves Santa Cruz Mountains Bay Area Ridge Trail {{SanMateoCountyCA-geo-stub

Photo gallery

See also

References