Looking west from the Ancient Oaks Trail in the park
Flora
Poppies and lupines are the primary flowers that dominate the green, lush rolling meadows in the spring to early summer, but in the late summer the hills turn gold and are covered with flowers such as the cluster-lily, gumweed, mule's ear, and farewell to spring. In shaded areas, one can expect to see thimbleberry and a variety of ferns growing.
Russian Ridge is named after a Russian immigrant, Mr. Paskey, who leased a dairy farm here from the 1920s to 1950 from James "Sunny Jim" Rolph, Jr., then mayor of San Francisco and later California's 27th governor.
The district acquired the land starting in 1978 from later owners who had plans to develop it into subdivisions.[3]
Access
Parking for the preserve can be found in two parking lots — one lot as roadside parking on the northbound direction of Skyline Boulevard, the other, the Audrey C. Rust Commemorative Site, named after the former president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust, is located just off Alpine Road near the Alpine Road and Skyline Boulevard intersection.[4]
It can also be accessed through neighboring preserves, such as the Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve through the south-east end of the Ridge Trail (part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail system), as well as the Coal Creek Open Space Preserve, by crossing Skyline Boulevard from Coal Creek's Clouds Rest Trail to Russian Ridge's Ridge Trail.
