The Bay Area Ridge Trail at El Sereno Open Space Preserve winds down the side of the preserve’s namesake mountain past coastal scrub to a scruffy overlook above the Lexington Reservoir. The views of the Silicon Valley are magnificent.
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TRAIL MAP (date hiked)
- El Sereno Open Space Preserve (Nov. 12, 2022)
Our Journal
We tackled the Ridge Trail at Mount El Sereno on a clear sunny day with the temperature hovering around 60. Perfect. If it were a road, we’d have driven the trail in our tiny red two-seater with the top down.
It’s one of the few Ridge Trail segments that begins near the top of the mountain and winds its way to the bottom. The views of the South Bay are tremendous.
In addition to Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay, we often could see a mile or more of the trail ahead as it serpentined toward the reservoir overlook, where we enjoyed our lunch.
After enjoying a down-hill stroll for most of the trail’s 3.5 miles, the return back up the hill to the trailhead was a bit of an affront. Very manageable but mildly annoying.
Back on the Coast, we addressed the affront with wine and pot pies at the Coastal Vine in Moss Beach.

Miles we hiked
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