A pleasant hike through varied terrain up to Black Mountain that offers panoramic valley views.

Location: Monte Bello Open Space Preserve

» Official Trail Map: Good quality map showing various trails.

» South Skyline Regional Map by MROSD: Awesome map showing many parks managed by MROSD (Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space Destrict). Long, interesting routes going through multiple parks can be chalked out using this map.

» Redwoodhikes Trail Map: Great map showing many parks like Purisima Creek, Huddart, Wunderlich, El Corte De Madera, Foothills, Hidden Villa and Rancho San Antonio. Trail maps for individual parks are available online for free. However, the RedwoodHikes map shows the big picture and is helpful for planning hikes that go through multiple parks.

1. To Black Mountain (3.1 miles): From the parking lot for Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve along Skyline Blvd, walk up to Skyline Blvd (0.1 miles) → cross the road and follow Skid Road Trail (0.7 miles) → Stevens Creek Nature Trail (0.6 miles) → Canyon Trail (0.2 miles) → left on Indian Creek Trail (1.2 miles) → right on Monte Bello Road (0.3 miles) to reach Black Mountain.
2. Explore Black Mountain (0.2 miles): There are some unmarked hiking trails (0.2 miles) leading to views of silicon valley in the north. Santa Cruz mountains are visible in the south.
3. To Monte Bello parking lot (2.4 miles): From Black Mountain, follow Monte Bello Road (0.3 miles) → left on Indian Creek Trail (0.2 miles) → right on Old Ranch Trail (0.6 miles) → left on Bella Vista Trail (0.8 miles) → right on Canyon Trail (0.5 miles) to reach Monte Bello parking lot.
4. To Skyline Ridge parking lot (2.5 miles): From Monte Bello Parking lot, follow White Oak Trail (2.0 miles) → right on Skid Road Trail (0.4 miles) to reach Skyline Blvd. Cross the road and walk along unnamed trails (0.1 miles) to reach the parking lot.

Location: Along Skyline Blvd, Los Gatos, CA 95033 . No street address. Parking area is visible in Google Maps if you zoom in sufficiently.

Directions: There are two parking lots for Skyline Ridge. This parking lot is on Skyline Blvd (Hwy 35), about 0.9 miles east of its intersection with Page Mill Road.

Google Maps:

Parking Fees: None (last visited: Dec 2010)

Capacity: Not known

Latitude: 37.311659     Longitude: -122.173475