Duck Pond and Palo Alto Airport, The Baylands, East Palo Alto
Since this is my first post here, let me introduce myself before I get to the matter at hand: I’m E. Stephen Mack, aka Zeigen. I live in Mountain View, I work at TiVo (which is how I know Slacy and Howard), and my wife and I have two kids: Sammy, who’ll be three years old exactly one month from today, and Sophie, who will turn one a week later. I blog over at Zeigen. My thanks to Slacy for inviting me to participate here!
Three of Sammy’s very favorite things are airplanes, ducks, and mud. You can find plenty of all three at The Baylands, off Highway 101 in Palo Alto.
As you enter The Baylands from Embarcadero Road, follow the signs to the Duck Pond. Geese and ducks abound, while an endless parade of small aircraft take off and land at the adjoining municipal airport. The Duck Pond Loop trail (0.7 miles) is a granite trail bed (fine for strollers) that takes you around the pond and its fountain, reasonably close to the airport’s main runway and control tower.
From the Duck Pond you can also hike up the Marsh Front Trail for about half a mile to the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretative Center (or you can drive). The Center’s summer hours are Tuesday through Friday, 2 to 5pm, and Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5pm. The Center was closed when we visited, but it seemed to have a few dioramas and was set up to show educational films. After checking out the wren’s nests in the Center’s eaves along with a periscope and binoculars that were set up outside, we saw that the Center adjoins a short platform bridge walkway over the marsh, which led to an observation platform where you have excellent views of the Dumbarton Bridge, Moffett Field, and the foot of the Bay.
There are good spots for picnicing, including one spot near the ranger’s station that had barbecue grills. You’ll also find a few bathrooms (just porta potties), some drinking fountains, plenty of flat and wide hiking trails, and lots of marshy streams and sloughs. There are very few large trees, so The Baylands can be windy and is unshaded — light windbreakers and brimmed hats are recommended.
The park is an odd mixture of industrial and natural: One section is home to a recycling center and dump, so you can combine a picnic and hike with some errands. Despite the power lines and proximity to the water quality control plant, the wetlands are beautiful, and the park is known as one of the Bay Area’s best bird-watching sites. We spotted at least a dozen species of birds.
Cost: Free to enter, free to park.
When it’s open: 8am to sunset, year-round.
How to get there: Take 101 to the Embarcadero exit, then turn off on Embarcadero East (in between Embarcdero West and the Oregon Expressway). You’ll pass by Ming’s Restaurant, a couple of car dealerships, a golf course, and the Palo Alto Airport before entering the park.
If you’re biking, there’s a bike bridge over 101 via St. Francis Drive near the Oregon Expressway. Most of the trails are open for biking.
What to bring: Lunch, hats, layered clothing due to wind.
For more information, including trail maps: Visit the City of Palo Alto’s web site
For go-getters: Combine your park visit with weekend dim-sum at nearby Ming’s, and explain to your kidlet why they might enjoy eating that greatest of favorite children’s dishes: phoenix talons.
Obligatory bad iPhone photograph:
August 16th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
[...] Steve Lacy, a friend and former co-worker, has created BayDad, a blog by, for, and about dads in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ll be blogging there a bit, and I just wrote my first post there, about The Baylands park in Palo Alto. [...]