One of my favorite short hikes in the Bay Area is the Dish trail at Stanford. It’s a nice, paved hill with great views of Silicon Valley, and the Peninsula. While it’s essentially a simple loop, there are enough spur trails to see something new each time you visit. And because it is paved, you can walk or run in any weather without getting muddy.

Some of the hidden gems of this park include two trails that go underneath highway 280, although one is meant primarily for cattle.

From a photography standpoint it’s a good place for both portraits and nature photography. It’s very green in the spring, and yellow the rest of the time. There are a lot of heritage Oak trees that make for great backdrops.