Los Trancos Open Space Preserve is a 274-acre area located in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Palo Alto. This is an ideal spot to learn about earthquake geology. The San Andreas Fault, one of the world's longest and most active faults, splits the preserve.
The Preserve is situated at about 2,000 feet and always has fresh air scented with pungent bay leaves, sweet grass, and damp woods. Here, visitors will find a pleasant environment of rolling grassland knolls alternating with oak woodland and cool shaded forest. On a clear day, one can spot the gleaming skyscrapers of San Francisco and pick out Mt. Diablo across the bay.
Once part of a 13,300-acre ranch in the nineteenth century, the land that was to become Los Trancos Preserve was purchased in the early 1900s by Louis Oneal, a San Jose attorney and state senator who raised horses and owned the nearby O&O Breeding Stables. The property changed hands in the 1950s, and in the 1960s Palo Alto ran water and power lines to it, in anticipation of residential development. The Livingston-Blarney report detailing the high cost of providing city services to the foothills stopped a proposed subdivision. The District acquired most of the property in 1976.
The 1.5-mile San Andreas Fault Trail was established in 1977 with volunteer assistance from former Foothill College geology professor Tim Hall and his students.
