Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve

The wedding ceremony will probably take place at Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve (but possibly not, depending upon weather, as noted elsewhere on this site -- please be at 235 Belmont Ave at 3:00 sharp for final instructions). Russian Ridge is located up in the hills to the south of Redwood City, off of the road that runs along that ridge of hills, Skyline Boulevard. The simple version of these directions is: follow highway 84, Woodside Rd., from our house (which is one block off of it) to Skyline Boulevard, then turn left and follow Skyline southeast to Russian Ridge, park and walk to the site. This will suffice for most, since there will be a carpool caravan from the house to the site, led by someone who knows the way.

In case anybody is late, or gets separated from the pack, though, more detail is probably needed:

Here's the high-level overview. Highway 84 runs within a block of 235 Belmont Ave. Following 84 roughly south gets you to highway 35, Skyline Boulevard. Taking that southeast leads you to Russian Ridge, which is the large green patch on the south side of Skyline before you reach Alpine Road. It's a big place; we'll be at one particular spot, so read on.

This is a blow-up of the vicinity of the parking area we will stop at. The dashed line is Skyline Boulevard (highway 35), and it is perhaps the only road shown on the map; the thick lines are trails, the thin lines are contour lines showing elevation, the gray areas are private land. The parking area we will use is labelled "Vista Point" here, slightly to the right of center. It is on the left-hand side of the road, just after the gate (which is on the right-hand side of the road) that gives you access to Russian Ridge's trails. So you will park at Vista Point, and then walk back to the gate and cross the road, perhaps fifty feet back from your parking space.

This map shows the detail around the parking area, and the actual wedding site. The wedding will be on the Ridge Trail, which has a green line running alongside it. (It's a trail that I gather runs all the way around the entire Bay Area, although I've never hiked it). The site is marked with a red star. It's quite a short walk, probably one-tenth of a mile, along a dusty dirt road. It's uphill on the way out, but not so steep as to be difficult or treacherous. High-heeled shoes would be a bad idea; virtually any other sort of shoes should be fine. You will know the spot when you see it, as others will already be there before you.

Distances for each leg of this journey (measured from 235 Belmont Ave in all cases) are:

1.5 miles: you go under the underpass for 280, while on Highway 84.

2.3 miles: you reach a four-way stop sign in the town of Woodside, on Highway 84.

4.7 miles: Highway 84 forks to the right and starts to climb steeply; Portola Valley Road forks left.

8.2 miles: you reach the intersection of Highway 35 and Highway 84, where you turn left. This intersection is the home of Alice's Restaurant, a famous biker hangout.

14.2 miles: you have reached the parking area on Highway 35 for Russian Ridge. The gate is a few dozen feet back from the parking area, on the opposite side of the road.

14.3 miles: you are at the wedding site, on the Ridge Trail, having made a shallow left turn onto the Ridge Trail after coming through the gate on foot.