Monte Bello Open Space Preserve is a 3,133-acre protected landscape in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Palo Alto, spanning the upper Stevens Creek watershed and part of the San Andreas Fault rift valley. Its slopes preserve evidence of nineteenth-century logging, dairying, and Italian farming and winemaking, later followed by ranch ownership, Stanford holdings, and the removal of a commune called The Land when the preserve was created in 1975. Natural and human history remain closely intertwined here, from recovering Douglas-fir forest and spring-fed wetlands to diverse wildlife, wildflowers, trail networks, Black Mountain, and the district’s only backpack campsite.