Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve

The preserve consists of the former Yacht Harbor area, the Palo Alto Airport, the Municipal Golf Course, the Duck Pond and public picnic area, the Baylands Athletic Center, the Sailing Station, the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center, the Harriet Mundy Marsh and the Palo Alto Flood Basin.

In the late 1920s levees were constructed to re-route San Francisquito Creek away from its former mouth, to a sharp north turn for about half a mile, then to the northeast, before exiting to the Bay.

Dredging of the former Yacht Club produced landfill for the filling of marshlands to construct the Palo Alto Airport and Municipal Golf Course.

[3] The Harriet Mundy Marsh extends from Lucy Evans Nature Interpretive Center to Sand Point and was dedicated on October 23, 1982, honoring Harriet Mundy who circulated a petition which resulted in the City Council stopping development of a $30 million private proposal to develop the Palo Alto Baylands for commercial and industrial use.

[3] The Baylands are home to numerous species of plants and animals including the near threatened Ridgway's rail and the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse.

A plank walk leads a quarter-mile across the marsh to open water and a panoramic view of San Francisco Bay.