2 min
Overview
Thornewood Preserve, quietly tucked between I-280 and Skyline Boulevard in Woodside, packs an historic and botanical wallop in its itty-bitty 1.5-mile trail system. This hike visits all 1.5 miles in the preserve, including Schilling Lake, Dennis Martin Creek, and a second-growth redwood forest. It is a great option for a morning or afternoon walk to clear your head and to see beautiful wildflowers in winter and spring. Begin your hike at the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District kiosk and trailhead, heading south on the Schilling Lake Trail towards Schilling Lake. To your right are a private road and the former Thornewood house, which is currently leased to a private party and undergoing restoration. It is closed to the public at this time, but you can check in with Midpen for updates. Note that this hiking route is an inverse hike: it loses elevation to the turnaround point at Old La Honda Road and then re-gains it on the way back. If you’d rather do the hike bottom-up, you can start from Old La Honda Road. See Notes below for more info. On the Schilling Lake Trail, step into madrone, Douglas fir, and live oak forest. In winter, the toyon’s red berries pop against the greenery, hence its other common name: Christmas berry. Mossy tree trunks sprout along the trail, trickling streams flow beneath the trail through culverts, and Steller’s jays quack-chirp among blackberry, coffeeberry, tangled branches, and partial sky. The wide single-track is fairly level for the first half mile and then descends to Schilling Lake and Dennis Creek. In late winter and spring, the mottled leaves and deep cranberry-colored flowers of giant wake robin (Trillium chloropetalum) bloom. Its genus, Trillium, refers to the plant’s three leaves and three flower petals, and the species chloropetalum is a nod to the hint of green in some of the flowers’s petals. Purple-blue western hound’s tongue (Cynoglossum grande) mixes with dark pink warrior’s plume (Pedicularis densiflora). Gently feel the leaves of the hound’s tongue—the tiny hair
Trail Stats
4.7 km
182 m
341 m
194 m
—
Photos
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.
Trail photo
No caption provided.