Tucked into a couple of valleys beneath Black Mountain, Rancho San Antonio is sometimes a very busy place. There is an equestrian area, a big flat area where people fly non-gas powered airplanes, Deer Hollow Farm where animals are raised and many miles of trails inside the park plus places to start the main trail up Black Mountain.

Rancho San Antonio is actually two parks: a much smaller County park and the larger Open Space park. The County park has picnic tables, a paved bike trail and rough open field where St. Joseph's used to be. This park also has a couple of tennis courts and an old handball court under a huge Bay tree.

The Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District Park is far larger and includes the Farm, miles of trails, a pond and a line of PG&E transmission towers that march up the hill and over the top. Black Mountain trail can be accessed here, at the Mora Drive entrance, Rhus Ridge, Hidden Villa and other spots.

These maps allow you to better follow the descriptions, plus they are good quality and useful in the park.

I really like Rancho San Antonio. It is near my childhood home and I have memories of this place long before there was any development as a park. I am describing this park in much more detail than the other parks, so I am breaking out a few individual trail routes. I also have a page of photographs I like that don't fit well into any of the description pages: good images of Rancho San Antonio.

Trails described are: