Qualla: Monte Bello Open Space Preserve

Monte Bello Open Space Preserve: Introduction

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit J Doll, CC BY 3.0. When the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District acquired Monte Bello from Stanford University in 1975, they inherited an unexpected population. A commune of about 100 people, calling themselves simply "The Land," had established a community along the Canyon Trail from Page Mill Road to Indian Creek. They built dwellings on platforms scattered through oak woodlands and secluded canyons, maintained a woodworking shop and a stained-glass workshop, grew their own food, and gathered for holiday celebrations in a large ranch building that served as their dining hall. They were evicted. The preserve that replaced their community now protects 3,133 acres of foothill wilderness -- Monte Bello means 'beautiful mountain' in Italian, a name given by the winemakers who farmed these slopes in the early twentieth century.

Image: J Doll | CC BY 3.0

Monte Bello Open Space Preserve: A Fault Line Valley

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit XanaG, CC BY-SA 4.0. The preserve encompasses the upper Stevens Creek watershed in the valley between Monte Bello Ridge and Skyline Ridge. That valley is straight for a reason: it is the rift valley of the San Andreas Fault, one of the most geologically active zones in California. A sag pond at the b...

Image: XanaG | CC BY-SA 4.0

Monte Bello Open Space Preserve: Loggers, Dairymen, Winemakers

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit J Doll, CC BY 3.0. The landscape bears the marks of successive occupations. Nineteenth-century loggers dragged massive Coast Douglas-firs along skid roads using oxen -- the Skid Road Trail follows one of these old routes. Italian farmers and winemakers settled on Monte Bello Ridge afterward, and da...

Image: J Doll | CC BY 3.0

Monte Bello Open Space Preserve: The Living Mountain

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Baron from San Francisco, California, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. Today, second-growth Douglas fir seedlings advance uphill into the preserve's grasslands, a visible example of forest succession reclaiming the clearings that nineteenth-century logging created. California poppies, checker mallow, and blue-eyed grass color the meadows in spring. ...

Image: David Baron from San Francisco, California, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0