A Great hike from Alameda de las Pulgas
in Redwood City to Half Moon Bay !

This spring, hiking with a friend on a clear day in the Russian Ridge Open Space preserve off Skyline Boulevard, we had a good view of the coastline. Good enough that it didn’t look very far away, and we speculated about how far it was, how long it might take to walk there, and if any trails existed.

While we talked about it, the idea came up about walking from home, in Redwood City to Highway 1. Not exactly a proposition as grand as Lewis and Clark’s expedition, but a pretty good walk nonetheless.

Looking at the map of San Mateo county parks, it was clear that the entire distance couldn’t be covered on hiking trails within park boundaries, but close enough. In the end, seven friends met on a Saturday morning in early September in Edgewood Park in Redwood City, and headed off to the coast on foot. We had pre-positioned a car at the end of the route the night before, so that we’d have a way to get home.

Starting at Alameda de las Pulgas and Edgewood Road, we walked behind Sequoia Hospital, onto Cordilleras Road, then a short part of Edgewood Road to the entrance of Edgewood County Park. We took the Edgewood Trail through the park, to its end at Canada Road. Crossing Canada Road, we followed the Crystal Springs trail south to Runnymede Road, then veered west onto Raymundo Drive to its end, where the Crystal Springs Trail enters Huddart Park. Once inside Huddart Park, we followed Richards Road Trail up to Skyline Boulevard, and crossed over into Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space preserve. Conveniently, there are picnic tables and toilets there so we took a break after the uphill climb and had lunch, then it was all downhill on the Purisima Creek trail to the park boundary, about 4 miles from the coast. The last leg of the trip is alongside Purisima Creek Road, and we decided to skip that, since everyone agreed that we’d walked enough, and walking on the side of a road (even a quiet road through nice countryside) wasn’t appealing.