The City of Palo Alto has more than 4,500 acres of park land to explore, recreate and relax in. Whether you are looking for a place to picnic with your family, an area to play a game of soccer, a site for a wedding, or trails that will help you to escape to nature, there are a broad assortment of parks and open space areas to enjoy!

Twenty eight neighborhood parks offer an assortment of amenities including children's playgrounds, picnic tables, playing fields, and walking paths. Many parks feature specialized facilities such as tennis courts, basketball courts, skate bowls, community gardens, dog exercise areas, and par courses.

If you are looking to explore nature, Palo Alto's open space preserves offer a chance to hike from the marshes of the bay to the redwoods of the upper Santa Cruz mountains. The Baylands Preserve protects some of the last remaining salt marsh and mud flat habitats on the west coast. It offers excellent birding year round. Foothills Park is a 1,400-acre preserve with rugged chaparral, woodland, fields, streams, a lake, 15 miles of backwoods trails and spectacular views of the bay. Pearson-Arastradero Preserve is a beautiful mixture of rolling savannah grassland and broadleaf evergreen forest. Each area of the preserve has something different to offer: views of the bay; a quiet walk through the grasslands; or a snooze by the lake.

The City of Palo Alto offers a variety of nature programs, hikes, camps, walks, workshops, and other activities in the open space preserves. A schedule of these events is listed in the Enjoy! program catalog.