Stevens Creek Trail

The trail runs about five miles from Shoreline Park south to Heatherstone Way, entirely apart from traffic thanks to its overcrossings and underpasses. (Wikipedia)

In 1967 the city bought land left over from building Highway 85 to make a chain of parks along the creek, and that land became the trail in the 1990s. (Mountain View Historical Association)

Juan Bautista de Anza camped on the creek in 1776. It is named for Elisha Stephens, who led the first wagon train over the Sierra Nevada in 1844 and settled on its banks in 1848; neighbors remembered him offering rattlesnake for dinner. (Wikipedia, Mountain View Voice)

Coyotes, gray foxes, black-tailed deer, butterflies, dragonflies and about 150 species of birds live along the creek, and shorebirds feed on its mudflat at low tide where it reaches the bay. (Wikipedia)