I employed my usual style of a "perimeter" hike in which I try to do a loop around the perimeter of an area that comes out to around 6-8 miles. This one clocked in just shy of 7 miles. Russian Ridge is a great place for any level of hiker who is comfortable with some moderately steep uphills (though none of the steeper sections are very long). There are multiple cut-off points which allow you to customize the distance according to how you feel at the moment.
While the wildflowers were not spectacular there is still plenty of color. All the usual suspects, Lupine, Calif Poppies, Mustard, Vetch etc are represented with a few I had not seen in my up till now in my mostly really south South Bay spring excursions. There were mostly small patches of flowers spread over the hills though one great patch of Lupin on the mid section of the Ridge Trail and several large patches of those small orange daisy-like ones (I'm working on learning the names of these, really I am!).
One nice thing about this park is that even without the spring color it still has some spectacular views. Since most of the trail is in open fields this time of year you are treated to huge expanses of green. Much of the Ridge Trail appropriately skirts close to or along the top of the ridge of the mountains in a single track which affords a spectacular view. From much of this same trail you get views of the South Bay valley on the one side and views of the coast between Half Moon Bay and Pescadero on the other. The valley view was a bit obscured by quite a bit of haze but still an impressive site. Similarly the actual coast was lost in a dense bank of fog but that actually made for a fairly spectacular view. Additionally the welcome shady areas on the Ancient Oaks Trail is also sufficiently greened up with ferns and various other undergrowth starting to cover the forest floor.
Again I encourage all to get out and see the color that is out. It probably is not going to reach spectacular heights this year but is there now however brief it may be.
bc