Laurelwood Park — Attraction in San Mateo

I recently had the pleasure of discovering this beautiful local gem of a park; Laurelwood Park / Sugarloaf Open Space Preserve is the official name of this brilliant park...err giant hill in the heart of San Mateo. It's actually located in the Sufarloaf Neighborhood. It's more like a giant hill located in the middle of Laurelwood Park. The various names can get confusing...

The park has multiple entrances, as well as good variety of trails with different levels of difficulty. I believe it's San Mateo's largest park with around 225 Acres. A quick moderate hike to the top of the hill will lead to some amazing views of the San Francisco Bay Area. The main entrance has a very nice picnic area and playground for kids. The City of San Mateo keeps this place spick and span. I'll definitely be back to explore the remaining...

It is what it’s described, the largest park in San Mateo. The entire park covers one high hill. There are multiple entryways, but the most common one is starting at the playground with restrooms and BBQ area. After that, it’s adult’s mission to hike all the way to the top of the hill for the majestic views people claimed.

Since this is open nature, so the trails can get extremely muddy after the rains. We waited for a whole day after and the path was still very sloppy. But, that’s what nature is. And, there’s a lot of wild flowers, plants and BUGS!!!

We were contained with the playground and the view at the...

Awesome for younger kids since it's contained with a fence. There's a sandbox, separate small play structure, and bigger structure for the bigger kids. There are swings for little ones, but no "normal" swings. It does get rather hot in the afternoon, and the play area isn't shaded during the hottest parts day.

There's a covered area with picnic tables right next to the playground which is perfect for kids parties. No grill though.

There's also a nice field for walking dogs or kicking a ball. You can climb the hill for an awesome view of the bay (not for little kids). And there's the bike trail that...