Location: 15400 Montalvo Road, a 2-3 minute drive from the High School

Length: A quick 2-mile hike,  1 mile up and 1 mile down, that usually takes around 30 minutes to an hour depending on which starting trial is chosen

Easiness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Review: Villa Montalvo is packed during weekend mornings, so make sure to arrive early in order to get a parking space. The trail is filled with trees and shade on the way up to the lookout so it can get a little bit chilly. However, the top of the lookout point is  usually quite sunny (also a great place to take pictures for those hikers who aren’t completely worn out).

Best Trails: The Lookout trail is Villa Montalvo’s most popular trial with the most numbers of hikers at any given time. Hikers wishing for a more secluded hike on the way up can also take the nature and creek trails before converging onto the Lookout trial. These are just a couple of the plethora of trials that all end at the lookout point and are all roughly the same mileage to hike up.

Best times to go: All trails end at the common point of the end of the Lookout trial that overlooks the entire Bay Area landscape. This view at any time of the day is breathtaking, but is especially beautiful at sunrise and sunset.  I have heard of many climbing the lookout point trail at night to see a viewpoint of nightlights, even though I have never done this feat myself.