The Guadalupe River Park’s trails are more than just paved pedestrian areas. They are easily reached, accessible to all, suitable for commuting and for strolling, and they form critical links to trail systems that connect Bay Area communities, jobs, entertainment, recreation, the shoreline, and the mountains.

The trails along the Guadalupe River Park, collectively called the River Walk, are 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. When these properties are redeveloped, the city will seek dedication in order to provide linkages to park circulation.

Connections to other paths, such as the Los Gatos Creek Trail, and to transportation hubs, such as the Diridon Multimodal 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 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.

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.

Visit the Trail Program’s award-winning website!

Guadalupe River Park Conservancy will be working with the City and other agencies to carefully track the progress of each project and to ensure that any inconvenience during construction is kept to a minimum. The good news is that, once these projects are completed, trail detours through the park will be eliminated and people using the park will enjoy a safer, more pleasant experience!

The City of San Jose’s Department of Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services continues to focus on trail development and has recently added more content to its Trail Program website, as a way of keeping the public informed. A trail inventory has been posted that provides an overview of all trail segments within the city.

Efforts are currently underway to produce a master plan for the Guadalupe Trail project from Alviso to Highway 880, in coordination with the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Lower Guadalupe River Flood Protection work. With a completed master plan, city staff will be able to pursue funding opportunities to develop nearly six miles of trail. View of the Downtown Project under construction, looking south from Santa Clara Street.

Meanwhile, a master plan for the Guadalupe River Trail from Highway 280 to Willow Street is approximately 90% completed and the Los Gatos Creek Project from Lincoln Avenue to Auzerais Avenue will have its plan and environmental documentation completed by February 2004.

For questions regarding the trails, please call the City of SJ's trail coordinator, Yves Zsutty, at 408-793-5561.

Trail Update
Posted 6.29.09

Trail Update

At long last, the ruts north of Airport Blvd. are being smoothed out. From the City of San Jose,

“We will have a contractor repairing the damaged dirt trail on Monday through Wednesday of next week. As an alternate route, please use the west bank trail, north of Airport to reach Green Island Bridge. Hopefully this minor rerouting won’t be too inconvenient. After Wednesday, trail users will enjoy a much improved gravel trail.”