Like many of you, I love going outside on a sunny day, enjoying the varied landscapes the Bay Area has to offer. POST has preserved over 97,000 acres of beautiful lands, benefiting our local wildlife, the environment, and people who love time in nature and outdoor adventures.
For many members of our community, outings need to be carefully selected due to mobility or other issues. Luckily, a number of parks and preserves offer accessible trails designed with a wide range of visitors in mind.
What Makes A Trail More Accessible?
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990 and aims to ensure that everyone has access to all aspects of life, including the opportunity to explore nature. Efforts have been made on many trails to follow certain standards for accessibility, so anyone can enjoy them — they are relatively flat and free of steep grades, making them easy to navigate with a wheelchair, mobility scooter, walker, or cane, and they are wider to allow people to pass.
Trails the Whole Group Can Enjoy
These easier-to-access trails are wonderful ways for anyone to enjoy nature! Many families use them because everyone can join in, from toddlers to grandparents. They can also benefit people with chronic health conditions, balance concerns, or temporary injuries, as well as people returning to outdoor activity after surgery or illness. They are also a good entry point for new hikers, allowing them to build up stamina for more difficult adventures. For people with visual impairments, they provide more navigable path with extra space for those hiking with guide dogs or friends describing the scenery. Of course, accessible trails are especially appreciated by groups that include people with varied abilities, allowing them to enjoy their outdoor sojourn together.
My Favorite Accessible Outings
Here are a few of my favorite accessible hikes in POST’s working area. As with all hikes, be sure to check the preserve’s website for important information, like trail closures and opening and closing times, before you set off on your trip!
Ravenswood Preserve in East Palo Alto
All 1.9 miles of trails in the Ravenswood Preserve in East Palo Alto are accessible. Set near the foot of the Dumbarton Bridge at the end of Bay Road, the preserve includes part of the Bay Trail, and its tidal marsh is home to a wide variety of birds. The main trail at Bay Rd. is 1.4 miles each way with overlook platforms at each end. Parking is free, but the preserve has no restrooms. Nearby Cooley Landing has restrooms, but they are not always available.
Coyote Lake Harvey Bear Ranch Park in San Martin
During spring wildflower season, the 2.4-mile Martin Murphy Trail at Coyote Lake – Harvey Bear Ranch Park in San Matin, is beautiful, although it can be quite warm at midday since there is little natural cover. Many species of birds frequent this area and there are accessible picnic tables with shade structures as well. The parking area is at 1950 E. San Martin Ave.
Año Nuevo State Park in Pescadero
For a coastal adventure, try Año Nuevo State Park in Pescadero, which has a 0.27-mile accessible boardwalk as well as the longer Año Nuevo Point Trail (1.3 miles each way) that meanders along coastal bluffs and includes four overlooks, giving views of beaches and wildlife. The part of the trial that allows viewing of the famous elephant seals is closed during breeding season (December 15 – March 31) and requires walking in the sand at other times, but there is an ADA-compliant way to view the elephant seals, which includes transport in a wheelchair-accessible van. You need to call ahead to reserve a space on these excursions: (800) 444-4445. Restrooms are in the parking lot and are ADA-compliant. As with all state parks, there is a $10/car entry fee.
Bear Creek Redwoods Preserve near Los Gatos
Bear Creek Redwoods is three miles south of Los Gatos and is filled with shaded redwood and fir forests and has historical artifacts from the Ohlone Tribe, who once lived in the area. A short (about .5 mile), ADA-compliant trail circles the small upper lake and continues into the Alma Cultural Landscape. Interpretive information is available for download here or the brochure at the preserve entrance. Parking is free and there are three wheelchair accessible parking spaces as well as two ADA-compliant bathroom stalls.
Tunitas Creek Beach in Half Moon Bay
The POST-protected Don Horsley County Park at Tunitas Creek Beach offers public access to a once private stretch of the San Mateo coast. It has over a mile of shoreline as well as picnic areas, overlooks, and interpretive signage and you can download a guide for use on your phone. There are no lifeguards on duty, so if any of your party goes down to the beach, make sure they take care.
Opened in the summer of 2026 after ten years of planning and construction, Tunitas Creek Beach sports an ADA-accessible trail down to the expansive views from the mid-bluff area. No dogs or pets are allowed in the park and the trails down to the beach are not wheelchair-accessible, but there are accessible restrooms and parking just off Highway 1.
Devil’s Slide Trail in Pacifica
On the coast in Pacifica, San Mateo County Parks has repurposed a closed portion of Highway 1 as a trail. It is 1.3 miles end-to-end, wide, fully paved, and dog-friendly, with sweeping views of the ocean (fog permitting, of course). There are parking lots at the north and south ends (10-12 spaces in each lot with disabled parking), ADA restrooms in the north lot, as well as two viewpoints with benches and some telescopes about 1/3 of the way from each end. The middle section has a 9% grade, which isn’t advisable for people using wheelchairs or walkers, so you may want to do each end as a separate out-and-back walk, but the amazing variety of plants and geologic formations is worth the effort, even if it is foggy, as it was the day I visited.
Sawyer Camp Trail Segment in Redwood City
This is arguably one of the most scenic wheelchair-accessible trails near the Peninsula’s urban areas. In Redwood City, it is a multi-use trial (people and bikes, no animals allowed) that winds above the edge of the Crystal Springs Reservoir and offers beautiful views across the water and south of the POST-protected Phleger Estate, now managed by the National Park Service. There is an accessible vault toilet at the trailhead and another one about a mile from the southern end, where you’ll also find a rest area. The northern part passes close the Jepson Laurel, the oldest and largest bay laurel tree in California.
Just off Highway 280, on sunny, weekend days this trail can get quite crowded, so go early in the day if possible. Parking can also be tricky. There is a small parking lot to the left as you face the southern trailhead, as well as some spaces along the road to the right. Other than that, you will need to park along the road, so, if that is the case, we suggest off-loading at the trailhead and, if the two wheelchair-accessible spaces are taken, parking along Skyline Boulevard (which is very steep).
Cowell-Purisima Trail near Half Moon Bay
Just south of Half Moon Bay, the Cowell-Purisima Trail is part of the California Coastal Trail, which will one day reach from the Oregon border to Mexico. Approximately 3.6 miles long, the best vantage point along this trail is at the northern end, near the access to Cowell Ranch Beach, where the land juts out and offers expansive views (but the whole trail is gorgeous!). The views of the Pacific, farms, and gentle grade make this one of the most enjoyable trail experiences on the California coast.
Most of the trail is wheelchair-accessible, except for steep terrain in the middle, where it crosses Purisima Creek. We recommend picking one end of the trail (north or south) and doing an out-and-back trip to this point, unless you have assistance to safely make it up and down this grade. There is parking available at both ends of this trail and the southern trailhead has a wheelchair accessible bathroom and a space for a full-sized van.
Resources for Finding Accessible Outings
Remember to check the preserve’s website for important information, like trail closures, before you set off on your trip!
Are you wondering how you can find other amazing trails like these? Good question! Many organizations and bloggers in the Bay Area and beyond have created helpful resources on wheelchair accessible and easy-access trails. The hard part is narrowing down the trail options enough to know where to go and when!
Here are some resources to explore that can help you find trails to meet your needs:
Guided Hikes
- The POST events page shows a month’s worth of free public events. The birding hikes at Bair Island and Ravenswood Preserve are ADA accessible and the ones labeled “slow walk” are over relatively flat terrain but might not be advisable for wheelchairs. Email [email protected] for details.
Organizations & Individuals to Get to Know
- Access Northern California, a website by the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP), has a helpful guide to accessible Bay Area trails, parks, gardens, and more.
- Disabled Hikers is a disabled-led nonprofit that builds community and advances justice in the outdoors through accessible trail information, events, advocacy, and education. Their founder, Syren Nagakyrie, wrote a paperback guide to accessible hikes in Northern California as well.
- The late Mark Hehir, aka Mobility Mark, did a lot of hiking and camping before becoming disabled by Muscular Dystrophy. His trail reviews are available through his blog, Adventures from a Wheelchair. Click on the link labeled San Mateo County Parks to access information including videos about specific parks.
Local and State-Wide Agencies
- Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen)lists easy-access opportunities that include trails between 300 feet and two miles long. They also have a Trail Explorer map that allows you to use different filters to find the best hikes for you, including slope, surface material, and sun exposure.
- Santa Cruz County Parks’ website has an accessibility page, including videos narrated by Brenda Gutierrez Baeza, who uses a wheelchair.
- The California State Parks website offers list of parks indicating what accessible features each one has, and the ability to click through to the park for more information.
- You can check out local national parks and their accessibility features at nps.gov.
- The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has a site called Trail Link The linked page is to California trails, but they also have trails across the country.
- Our partners at Sempervirens Fund feature a blog about “4 wheel Bob,” Bob Coomber, which includes hiking tips as well as a listing of accessible trails in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Best Practices When Visiting Trails
A reminder to everyone using public trails: Please be sensitive to others. Move to the side if someone needs to pass you. If someone asks for help, be ready to provide it, but don’t assume anyone needs it or provide it without asking first. You will encounter all kinds of people on the trails, including families, new hikers, and people in wheelchairs. Those who are blind or visually impaired may be hiking with guide dogs, canes, or guides. There are more blind hikers than you might think, and you may encounter them on non-accessible trails as well. For example, Randy Pierce is a blind hiker who, with his guide dog Quinn, scaled the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Andes, and Mt. Kilimanjaro.
So, don’t be deterred in your quest to experience the great outdoors! Grab your family or your friends (or both!) and find the hiking trails that suit you. Take advantage of the thousands of acres of open space preserved by POST and its partners and hit the trails that are best for you — you won’t be sorry you did!
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About Post
Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) protects open space on the Peninsula and in the South Bay for the benefit of all. Since its founding in 1977, POST has been responsible for saving more than 97,000 acres as permanently protected land in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. Learn more
