The Guadalupe River Park trails are more than just paved pedestrian areas…
The Guadalupe River Park’s trails are easily reached, accessible to all, suitable for commuting and for strolling- forming critical links to trail systems that connect Bay Area communities, jobs, entertainment, recreation, the shoreline, and the mountains. (enter) The River Walk is a part of the Guadalupe River Trail Corridor and one of the most distinctive features of the park. They will eventually form a continuous system of circulation, are designed to provide access to the river at various points, and generally pass under bridges to avoid at-grade street crossings. Some sections meander in close proximity to the river, while others are held to the top of the bank to avoid too much damage to the river’s ecology. There are a few locations where breaks in the trail system occur at properties developed long ago. (enter) The River Walk also ties into the Countywide Trails Master Plan system and is a link in a larger regional trail system that includes the Bay Area Ridge Trail and the San Francisco Bay Trail, a half-completed system that will eventually encircle the bay and stretch to the mountains. These systems are already extensively used for recreation, commuting to work, and a variety of other types of trips.
Connections to other paths, such as the Los Gatos Creek Trail, and to transportation hubs, such as Diridon Station (CalTrain, bus, light rail, and in the future, BART), encourage use of the River Walk by commuters. As a visual bonus, the trails allow nature-viewing opportunities along much of the river. The River Walk’s trails are constructed in a manner consistent with the city’s and county’s trails master plans, sized for both pedestrians and bicycles at 12’ wide in most locations.