This 2,143-acre preserve offers ten miles of trail for exploration. Two quarter-mile trails are accessible to wheelchairs and baby strollers: one encircling Alpine Pond and another hugging the shores of Horseshoe Lake. Several picnic tables overlook Horseshoe Lake. Views of the Lambert Creek watershed, Butano Ridge, and Portola State Park will impress the hiker who makes this trek.

The David C. Daniels Nature Center at Alpine Pond is being developed as an educational learning center. This center is open to the public on the weekends, April through mid-November. Call the District office, 650-691-1200, for a schedule of activities.

The nature center was funded in part by Peninsula Open Space Trust, a local nonprofit land trust. Funding from the California Park and Recreation Facilities Act of 1984 and the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund assisted development of this preserve.

HOW TO GET THERE

The preserve's entrance is located about one mile south of the Page Mill Road / Alpine Road and Skyline Boulevard (Highway 35) intersection.

Equestrian parking is also available here. For convenient access to the Daniels Nature Center and Alpine Road, park in the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve parking lot, located on the northwest corner of the Page Mill / Alpine Road and Skyline Boulevard intersection (across Skyline Blvd. on the right). Walk through the tunnel under Alpine Rd. to reach the nature center.

Download a map of Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve