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Manzanita Way – Tree Tunnel on Portola Road loop from Menlo Park

Manzanita Way – Tree Tunnel on Portola Road loop from Menlo Park

Moderate

4.7

(1854)

13,963

riders

Manzanita Way – Tree Tunnel on Portola Road loop from Menlo Park

02:32

57.7km

530m

Road cycling

Moderate road ride. Good fitness required. Mostly well-paved surfaces and easy to ride. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.

Last updated: August 12, 2026

Tips

Your route passes through a protected area

Please check local regulations for:

Wunderlich County Park

Waypoints

Start point

Train Station

Get Directions

8.86 km

Manzanita Way

Highlight (Segment) • Cycleway

Most boiler-template routes for this immediate area use Whisky Hill Rd. to get back and forth. Manzanita is several levels better (which includes a brief stretch of Mountain Home). Almost no cars, canopied and bucolic, it's perfect on a bike. So, substitute this for any Whiskey Rd routes!

Tip by

19.7 km

Pulgas Water Temple

Highlight • Monument

San Francisco built Pulgas Water Temple as a monument to the engineering marvel that brought Hetch Hetchy water more than 160 miles across California from Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Bay Area. The Hetch Hetchy Project took 24 years to build through the Great Depression at a cost of $102 million.
On October 28, 1934, the roar of Hetch Hetchy mountain water greeted everyone gathered at Pulgas Water Temple to celebrate its arrival. With vivid memories of the fire that had raged after the Great Earthquake of 1906, the city rejoiced in its new secure, plentiful supply of high quality drinking water. The frieze above the columns expresses the city’s relief: “I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people.”
Pulgas Water Temple was designed in the Beaux Arts style by William Merchant, a San Francisco architect trained by Bernard Maybeck. Merchant’s design featured fluted columns and Corinthian capitals to reflect the architecture of ancient Greeks and Romans, whose engineering methods were used to build the new water system. Artist and master stone carver Albert Bernasconi brought Merchant’s drawings to life.
Pulgas Water Temple is located about one-half mile south of the Cañada Road trailhead.
Open free to bikers & pedestrians every day, car parking opens only M-F 9-4
sfwater.org/index.aspx?page=93
Biketrail with more highlights and annotated photos at komoot.com/tour/11413421

Tip by

27.2 km

Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir

Highlight • Lake

The 15-mile Crystal Springs Regional Trail is one of the best mostly paved bike trails with few cars in the Bay Area. It spans from San Bruno to Woodside and is routed along three gorgeous lakes and connector links amid riparian woodlands. On Sundays, you can combine the San Andreas and Sawyer Camp segments to south of Highway 92 to Cañada Road, which is closed to cars for Bicycle Sundays (See komoot.com/tour/11413421)
Speed limit: 15 mph, difficult for high-end road bikes to stay below, so bring a bell: some hikers stand and talk in the center of the trail ;-)
San Andreas segment: From Skyline Boulevard south of San Bruno Avenue the trail drops to the head of San Andreas Lake, with pretty views across to the west of the wilderness slope of Montara Mountain. It rides along the lake 2 miles to an access point near Larkspur and 0.6 miles to another (at Hillcrest) where it connects to the Sawyer Camp segment.
Sawyer Camp segment: This is a gorgeous, easy bike ride, where you drop 400 feet over the span of 6 miles to Crystal Springs Dam. The route descends into riparian woodlands for 2.5 miles to Jepson Laurel picnic grounds, then runs along Crystal Springs Reservoir for 5.2 miles. You can continue another 1.7 miles to Cañada Road for Bicycle Sunday (no cars).
Cañada Road/Crystal Springs segment: South along Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir for 2.1 miles to the Pulgas Water Temple. It continues another 2.1 miles past Filoli Botanical Center and Phleger Estate to Edgewood Road
sfgate.com/outdoors/sundaydrive/article/Crystal-Springs-Trail-links-lakes-woodlands-4723374.php
parks.smcgov.org/crystal-springs-regional-trail

Tip by

30.9 km

View of Crystal Springs Reservoir from Cañada Road

Highlight (Segment) • Viewpoint

Bike Sunday - no motorized vehicles on Sundays, we've got the whole road for ourselves.

Tip by

46.9 km

Tree Tunnel on Portola Road

Highlight (Segment) • Natural

I road though here after coming down La Honda road, thought it was a really pretty part of the road and it covered l connects back to Sand Hill road

Tip by

57.7 km

End point

Train Station

Way Types & Surfaces

Way Types

46.0 km

5.37 km

3.18 km

2.94 km

128 m

< 100 m

Surfaces

55.3 km

2.39 km

< 100 m

Elevation

Nothing selected – click and drag below to see the stats for a specific part of the route.

Weather

Thursday 3 September

25°C

13°C

-- %

Additional weather tips

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Comments

October 6, 2024,The October Wind Flip

With dominant northeasterly winds in the peninsula, October brings occasional southeasterly winds when a heat dome sets overhead, like today. So it was a nice change to do the uber-familiar Cañada with reverse winds, as feeble as they were. Thus - my speed surprise! I only get to 15mph about once a year, at best, and I didn't even set …

November 16, 2024,Matching Tangerines

It was hard to motivate myself, but after 2 weeks off, I climbed back on the bike and rode the old go-to route.

July 5, 2025,The Travellin' Yo-Yo Blues

You know how you work hard and your conditioning goes up, only to take off travelling somewhere for a while and feel your conditioning drop, then you start over again? That. First ride back after being gone for a month. Ouf.

October 4, 2023,Old Faithful, SM to Woodside & back

I met a lazy rattler enjoying the tarmac on the Sawyer trail. And took my clementine break in the shade at the Village Hub in Woodside, my favorite place to catch my breath on this circuit.

July 9, 2024,Back at it

About 17 days out of the saddle demands some suffering payback for my absence. I felt weak throughout, but managed to finish familiar loop

June 19, 2024,Busy Busy Busy

Wheels all over the road. Unusually so. Bikes, cars and trucks. No horses today. I sure hope everybody got where they were going. Being retired, I set out this morning oblivious to the fact that today is Juneteenth! You know the holiday thing is working when the people aren't.

May 7, 2024,Back on Track and new Bike Rack

Yeah baby, that makes 1 ride in a row without a flat! Tested out the new bike rack. Spooky, but flawless. Air was crispier than I expected today.

September 4, 2024,Solar Lethargy

It really wasn't as hot as forecast, and I like the heat, but I must admit today it sapped at my strength, what bit I have. The opposite effect of solar energy. And all that new road coating basically sucks a bit for us cyclists, with ripples, lumps and crap.

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Manzanita Way – Tree Tunnel on Portola Road loop from Menlo Park

Manzanita Way

Pulgas Water Temple

Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir

View of Crystal Springs Reservoir from Cañada Road

Tree Tunnel on Portola Road

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