Weekend Hiking Adventure: Rancho San Antonio, CA
- tidbitsfromemily
- Dec 15, 2014
- 4 min read
Rancho San Antonio, located on 22500 Cristo Rey Drive, Los Altos, is a preserve for hikers, joggers, and runners. With a great variety of trails to choose from–ranging in level of difficulty, and with one of the trails actually leading up to a farm–Rancho San Antonio attracts people of all ages, newbie hikers and/or advanced hikers, and is great getaway for kids and families.
My Opinion: Pros of Rancho San Antonio
As mentioned, there are so many trails to choose from for hikers/joggers/runners of all levels and ages
Deer Hallow Farm–great for kids and families
Lots of parking on the weekdays (excluding holidays): 4 convenient locations
Very peaceful and quiet on the weekdays (excluding holidays, in which it tends to get quite crowded)
Deer Hallow Farm has a good variety of farm animals–pigs, horses, birds, goats, and so many more that are housed in areas with labeled placards of the type of animal (some of these placards even include a bit history/fun facts, too)!
Maps are available at the entrance
Trail signs are clearly labeled/easy to read
For the most part, all of the trails are wide for hikers to walk side by side
Trails are well shaded–so grateful for this on those hot, summer days!
My Opinion: Cons of Rancho San Antonio
Parking may be a challenge on the weekends–it gets quite crowded, so try to get there as early as you can!
Speaking of crowdedness, you will see lots of families with strollers/kids, especially around the Deer Hallow Farm, so it is not as peaceful and quiet on the weekends…my friends like to describe it as a “zoo” (although this depends on the time you are hiking and which trail you decide to hike on)
If you do not like the smell of farms, try not to hike anywhere near the Deer Hallow Farm trail.
Other:
Just as a heads up, watch out for large squirrels, rattle snakes (very rare, I’ve only seen one, once and I have hiked at Rancho San Antonio over 30 times now), wild turkeys, and wild deer.
Tips–Suggestions on what to bring/pack:
A bottle of water–gotta stay hydrated!
A little snack–trail mix, fruit, granola bars are great options in case you get hungry.
Sunglasses/hat are a must, especially on those hot, humid days!
Optional: camera–if you’re anything like me and love photography, definitely snap a photo when you reach the top of trail like the PG&E trail–the view on the top is gorgeous!
Optional: towel–let’s be real here, sometimes a towel is just something nice to have to wipe off all your sweat, especially on those hot, sunny days!
A backpack to carry all of these items
My Experience: Story time!
The first time I hiked at Rancho San Antonio, my mom thought it was a brilliant idea to take me to the most difficult trail of them all–the PG&E trail–despite the fact that I never “truly” hiked before (well, if you count tourist-y hiking hotspots like Muir Woods in SF as “hiking,” although my “hiking” attire was jeans and Vans at the time…A.K.A. I was not-really-hiking-but-fake-hiking), and boy was I in for a surprise.
Initially, I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. I mean, I walk on steep hills all the time. Sure, it can be tiring, but I can’t be that bad. Wrong.
Not to scare any of you who are thinking about hiking on the PG&E trail, but to be very honest with you, I think I was in legitimate hell that first time I hiked. In addition to the fact that I was out of shape, I was surprised with how many hills there were. Nevertheless, I did complete the entire 8.5 mile hike, 3.5 hours round trip, and I have gotten better ever since. (Note: If you are not a newbie hiker like I was the first time I hiked on the PG&E, you’ll be perfectly fine! Just keep in mind that this was the first time I ever legitimately hiked.)
Today, it takes me about 1 hour 5 minutes to get the top of the PG&E trail starting from bridge in the first parking lot, and about 1 hour 25 minutes on the way back (this is returning the same way and not going around full-circle, and yes, I like to take my time haha).
If you’ve never been on the PG&E trail before, I’d like to describe the most difficult parts of the trail as the “three hills of hell”–there are three extremely steep parts to the PG&E trail. I usually take a quick water break after the first hill (personally, I feel like it is the most difficult), and although the second and third hills are difficult as well, they are not as difficult as the first. The great thing about the “third hill of hell” is that after you survive that, you’ve made it to the top! And gosh, the view at the top is absolutely gorgeous. Here are a few pictures of me hiking last weekend.
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