Main Gate

March 28, 2015

It was a beautiful spring day to hike a Bay Area classic that has so far eluded us – Stanford Dish. A paved blacktop trail takes you around the radio telescope that is still actively used and goes by the popular name of “the Dish.”

Neither dogs nor bicyclists are allowed here, making this trail – more a well paved road than a proper hiking trail – popular with joggers and walkers. The nearly four mile trail is completely exposed, so it’s best done when it is not too hot. Street-side parking is available on Stanford Ave off Junipero Serra Blvd in Palo Alto.

The trail starts at the intersection of Stanford Ave and Junipero Serra Blvd. A short but sharp climb up a paved road will get you to junction where the loop begins.

The walk offers panoramic views of Stanford, bay bridges, the East Bay, as well as Arastradero Preserve and beyond on the other side.  I’d recommend doing the loop counter clockwise to take in the best views offered on the hike, especially of Stanford University and the bay.

The trail involves couple of sections with a sharp climb. Overall, this is easy to moderate, with about 550 ft. of elevation gain.

Continuing by Reservoir Road, the trail curves around and at the 2 mile mark, reaches the dish. An imposing structure, you can walk around the antenna. We also walked by the Ranch Road for a while before turning around and continuing our counter clockwise loop by Reservoir Road. 

Ranch Road goes all the way to Piers gate (close to Hwy 280), about a mile one way. If you are so inclined, you can add this two mile out-and-back section walking Ranch Rd to Piers gate and back.

Our hike was especially interesting today with several engaging conversation topics between Jaya, me, and our fast maturing Wildcat daughter, Jana.

With each of us standing on different ends of the spectrum on economic systems, we had a healthy debate on the merits and lack thereof between capitalism, socialism, and communism. We also put Jana in a spot to arbitrate between debates Jaya and I have all the time and she was ever so tactful in keeping both mom and dad happy 🙂

Including our short stint by Ranch Rd, we covered 4.5 miles today at a leisurely pace of 3 mph. Like I mentioned, this hike is easy-moderate with ~550 ft. of elevation gain.

December 26, 2016

Jaya, Jana & I did the “dish” hike once again on a fine, cool, crisp winter day. Worthy of mentioning are the parking changes that have been done on Stanford Ave since our previous visit. More organized, there are about 30 “back-in parallel parking” spots now. 

Otherwise, our experience was remarkably similar to our previous visit, even though they were in two distinct times of the year.

Here is the complete album of photographs from both our hikes at Stanford Dish.