Baylands Nature Preserve

The Baylands is the eastern edge of Palo Alto, where the city gives way to 1,900 acres of tidal marsh, mudflats, and open water. More than 300 bird species have been recorded here, and it is one of the best places in the Bay Area for shorebirds during migration. Great blue herons, American avocets, stilts, and egrets are year-round residents. Barn owls nest in the observation boardwalks.

The Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center provides context about the ecosystem and is free to enter. There are several miles of walking and cycling trails, including a boardwalk that extends out over the marsh. The preserve is at the end of Embarcadero Road, about 3 km east of downtown.

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A story
The Baylands are one of the largest remaining tracts of tidal marshland in San Francisco Bay — a bay that has lost roughly 85 percent of its historic wetlands to development over the past 150 years. The preserve was saved from development in the 1960s after a sustained campaign by local residents who were determined that Palo Alto would not build further into the Bay. It has since become a model for Bay wetland restoration.

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