Edgewood Park and Natural Preserve covers 467 acres of woodland and grassland right off Interstate 280 and Edgewood Road. San Mateo County Parks says its serpentine grasslands are famous for spring wildflower displays. It's one of the easiest places on the Peninsula to see them.
Why it matters
Wikipedia says about 160 acres of the park sit on serpentine soil, which supports a high share of native plants, including rare and locally endemic species. The park has grassland, chaparral, coastal scrub, foothill woodland and wetlands, with more than 500 species. Three are federally listed as endangered or threatened, and the threatened Bay checkerspot butterfly lives here. Edgewood has every major ecological zone of the Peninsula except redwood forest. It gets about 50,000 visitors a year.
The golf course fight
Development ideas for the land started in 1967, according to Wikipedia. They included a college, a recreation complex, a solar facility and a golf course. San Mateo County bought the property from the state in 1979 for about $2 million and approved plans for an 18-hole public golf course by 1982. The California Native Plant Society sued in 1983. The Bay checkerspot was listed as threatened in 1987, and the Edgewood Park harvestman followed in 1988. In 1993, a feasibility study found that the only land flat enough for golf was also the land with the protected species. Supervisors then declared the whole park a natural preserve, protecting it from future development.
When to go
Spring is peak wildflower season. In fall and winter, the woodland trails are quieter. Check the county's Edgewood page for trail rules and closures, since the preserve protects sensitive habitat.