Los Altos Library has a Mandarin-English storytime on Thursday mornings, so we came early to visit the Redwood Grove Nature Preserve. We followed Google Maps and I was surprised to find the entrance in a residential neighborhood where we parked along University Avenue. Once you enter the park the houses are close enough that you still feel like you are inside a neighborhood, which you basically are.

The trees are beautiful and there is a nice wooden boardwalk twisting through the park. The Adobe Creek was dark and quick on our visit (probably due to all the unusual rain recently) and the temperature under the redwoods was probably 10 degrees cooler then in the sun. On hot summer days I will definitely come back to take advantage of that, but on this particular March morning we were chilly and did not make it all the way through the boardwalk.

First and foremost this is a nature preserve and there were many signs of preservation (literally, there were a lot of signs) and I found that to detract from the nature experience somewhat. One way to avoid this would be to (1) just look up, always a good vantage points for redwoods! (2) Maybe there are fewer plantings happening in the summer or fall? I will need to check back to see if the large orange signs and small printed paper notices decrease over the seasons.

I would recommend checking this out if you are in the area, but I wouldn’t go far out of my way for it. It’s small and there are more impressive redwood groves in the area (posts on those coming soon, I just need to re-visit them as a resident!) and this park was on the small side.

Shoup Park was right next to the Preserve, so we spent an hour playing on the playgrounds there. This was a very nice park and if you have small children it is definitely worth visiting when you check out the Preserve!