Stanford Dish

The Stanford Dish sits on open hillside behind the main campus, visible for miles around as a great white bowl tilted toward the sky. A 3.5-mile paved loop trail encircles it, climbing through oak and grass-covered hills with views over the Bay on one side and the Santa Cruz Mountains on the other. On a clear day you can see downtown San Francisco.

The trail is free and open to the public from dawn to dusk. It is popular with runners and cyclists, and the climb is moderate — about 150 metres of elevation gain. Dogs are not permitted. Parking is at the Junipero Serra Boulevard entrance on the southwestern edge of campus.

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The 46-metre dish was built in 1966 as a radio telescope to track early NASA space probes, including Mariner and Pioneer missions. It transmitted commands to the Voyager probes during their Jupiter flybys in 1979. The Stanford Research Institute still uses it for radio astronomy and satellite communications research, though the surrounding trails are open to the public daily.