Our Favorite Bay Area Wildflower Hikes
You won’t be surprised to learn that Grassroots Ecology staff members love California wildflowers! It’s not just their exquisite colors, beautiful aromas, and special relationships with pollinators. As Project Manager Tyler Feld puts it, “native wildflowers have adapted to so many different pollinators, habitats, and climates. You get wildflowers in the desert, on the edge of the ocean, and at the tops of mountains that are covered with snow for most of the year. They remind me to be my authentic and colorful self, and I’ll find my own niche!”
We care for and restore ecosystems that host a diversity of native wildflowers, and we want to share the wildflower love by telling you about some of our favorite wildflower hikes and viewing opportunities where we work.
Before you head out on the trail, here are some tips for wildflower viewing, courtesy of Ecologist Hannah Cunningham:
Enjoy wildflowers responsibly!
Protecting flowers means that they will thrive for years to come and continue providing food and resources for animals. Keep our landscapes blooming by staying on established trails and taking photos instead of flowers.
Checker lilies at Byrne Preserve.
Mind the Time
Time of year matters when looking for wildflower blooms, but the time of day matters, too! Early mornings are beautiful (and parking is often easier!), but blue-eyed grass, red maids, California poppies, and other sun-loving flowers may not be fully open until it warms up or the sun comes out.
Blue-eyed grass at Foothills Nature Preserve (left); California poppies at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve (right).
Get close to the ground
Look for tiny flowers along trailsides - especially areas where there is serpentine soil influence, which are known to host lots of smaller (and still wondrous!) plants.
(From left) Dotseed plantain, Chile trefoil at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve; owl’s clover, purple sanicle at Byrne Preserve.
Crowdsource your field guide
Community scientists are some of the best resources for wildflower identification: search by area and month on iNaturalist to get an idea of what to look for. Some sites even have pre-made guides (like this one) containing previously observed plants at your favorite open spaces.
Here are some of our favorite places to see wildflowers:
Pearson-Arastradero Preserve
Pearson-Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto provides opportunities to see wildflowers within a 10-minute walk from the entrance. Lupines, buttercups, fiddlenecks, blue-eyed grass, and California poppies are blooming right now, with blue dips, Ithuriel’s spears, and yarrow to begin soon.
Hannah recommends following the Juan Bautista de Anza Trail to see a fiddleneck superbloom, a swath of buttercups past the bridge, “Poppy Corner” (which contains poppies and blue dips) where the de Anza Trail intersects the Meadowlark Trail, and a healthy patch of Pacific sanicle—less flashy than other wildflowers, but still one of our favorites—at the intersection with the Paseo del Roble Trail.
Swaths of miniature lupines (left) and California buttercups (right) at Pearson-Arastradero Preserve.
Lower Meadowlark Trail is a great place to see fiddlenecks, lupines, and blue-eyed grass. For fans of tiny flowers, head up Wild Rye Trail for miniature lupines, pinpoint clover, dotseed plaintain, Chile trefoil, and red maids.
Byrne Preserve
A hidden gem of Los Altos Hills, Byrne Preserve is a small but mighty public open space. Its grasslands, woodlands, and riparian corridor are home to a diversity of birds, mammals, and of course, wildflowers. Project and Nursery Lead Siena Watson recommends following the main trail through the grassland from the Westwind Barn parking lot (running parallel to Altamont Road).
Stop at the huge twin oaks at the top of the hill to enjoy sweeping blooms of fiddlenecks and buttercups, as well as a great view of the local mountain peaks. Walk past the twin oaks and get close to the ground to view the large yellow flowers of narrow leaf mule’s ears and some tiny blooms like cowbag clover and dwarf owl’s clover. Look out for a trail on your right just before a cluster of coast live oaks: this steep path is worth it for fans of tiny wildflowers like owl’s clover and purple sanicle.
For a break in the shade, take the trail that runs south from our floodplain planting area into the woodland—you’ll be rewarded by bluewitch nightshade, buttercups, and more. Cross Moody Creek and take the fire road north to see globe and checker lilies!
Narrow leaf mule’s ears at Byrne Preserve.
Foothills Nature Preserve
Foothills Nature Preserve, located in the Palo Alto foothills, hosts a variety of ecosystems—you can hike through riparian, bay laurel forest, oak woodland, grassland, and chaparral plant communities on a single hike!
Project Manager Tyler Feld recommends taking a 3-mile loop via the Steep and Hollow, Sunrise, and Los Trancos Trails. You can add a short spur to the top of the Valley View Fire Road for an incredible view of the peninsula (and all the way to Mount Tamalpais on a clear day!). Look out for cow parsnip in the woodlands, California larkspur, chia sage, paintbrush, and cardinal catchfly. And if you’re lucky you might see a carpet of pacific starflower blooming, which Tyler likens to a “magical green and pink night sky!”
Look out for flashes of red in the woodlands at Foothills Nature Preserve and you might spot crimson columbine (left) or cardinal catchfly (right).
For a longer hike, you can also follow the Los Trancos Trail, which “takes you along unique areas of Los Trancos Creek that feel so remote you will forget you are in the Bay Area,” says Tyler. You’ll hike through a blue oak woodland with a carpet of Henderson’s Shooting Stars, a variety of lupines, chia sage, silverpuffs, and more.
Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve
Russian Ridge, a Midpeninsula Regional Open Space located off Skyline Boulevard in San Mateo County, is renowned (by those less biased than us) as one of the best places to see wildflowers in the Bay Area. Tyler recommends hiking a loop via the Ridge Trail, Ancient Oaks Trail, and Bo Gimbal Trail, featuring a combination of amazing views and wildflowers. You might see mule's ear sunflowers, common madia, lupine, pacific hound's tongue, and maybe even our native dandelion.
Bonus: Shorter Strolls at Our Sites
If you want to see native flowers this spring but want to stay on flatter ground, many of our sites are more accessible yet still teeming with blooms. McClellan Ranch Preserve in Cupertino has paved and unpaved trails by our meadow restoration areas (you’ll see sticky monkey-flower, blue-eyed grass, California poppies, and golden yarrow) and Stevens Creek (wild cucumber and box elder currently blooming). Redwood Grove Nature Preserve in Los Altos features trails and boardwalks that provide views of Ceanothus, redwood sorrel, wild strawberry, and more. Finally, we have demonstration gardens at Bol Park in Palo Alto and Alma Street Garden in Menlo Park that provide great opportunities to view wildflowers up close.
Bol Park in bloom.
For even more wildflower fun, check out our previous blog, in which we dive deep into the unique wildflowers of our region (and more tips on where to find flowers near you). Enjoy the views!
By Maya Nagaraj, Restoration Specialist
