San Francisco - South Bay

The South Bay, home of Silicon Valley, has the kind of landscape in-line skaters learn to love: Office park after office park, with some of the best concrete sidewalks and smoothest parking lots you'll find anywhere, not to mention dedicated bike paths for lunchtime workouts. But then again, the area has plenty to please nature lovers, too. One trail in south San Jose starts at the end of a street with the high-tech name of Silicon Valley Boulevard and offers access to the more back-to-nature street called Coyote Creek Parkway. When fully connected, this will be one of the longest skating trails in northern California.

The local in-line scene is centered south of San Jose along the Los Gatos Creek Trail, where day after day, in-line experts and tottering beginners compete for their share of pavement with joggers, strollers and bicyclists. Fine skating can also be found along the wetlands trails on the southwest shores of the San Francisco Bay and on the Cliffside Natural Bridges State Park Trail in Santa Cruz.

Trail	City	Distance	Scenic	Ability	Pavement
Los Gatos Creek Trail	Campbell	13 mi
Shoreline Park	Mountain View	7 mi
Baylands Trail	Palo Alto	6 mi
Cornelius Bol Park Bike Path	Palo Alto	5 mi
Stanford University Campus	Palo Alto	4 mi
Stanford Wednesday Night Skate	Palo Alto	7 mi
Alamitos Creek Trail	San Jose	9 mi
Almaden Lake Trail	San Jose	4 mi
Coyote Creek Parkway	San Jose	15.5 mi
Cunningham Park Lake Loop	San Jose	4 mi
Penitencia Creek Trail	San Jose	4 mi
Sports Arena Parking Lot	San Jose	2 mi
San Tomas Aquino Creek/Bay Trail	Santa Clara	7.6 mi
Natural Bridges State Park Trail	Santa Cruz	5.5 mi