Shoreline's Newest Trail Closed in Its First Fall. Here's Where to Walk and Watch Birds in Mountain View This November

The Song Sparrow Spur Trail runs 1.2 miles past the end of the Stevens Creek Trail. It crosses two armored bridges and ends at benches facing open Bay. It opened early this year. Since Aug. 31 it has been closed behind a Refuge gate.

This Thursday, Shoreline at Mountain View has closures on three fronts. The spur is shut, the Sailing Lake boardwalk is closed through Friday, and dump trucks cross the Bay Trail every weekday. Two of those come from the plan to turn former salt ponds back into tidal marsh, and the third is a separate City repair project nearby. All three run on a predictable calendar. Most of it is weekday work, and the A2W piece is scheduled to end with November. That's also when Shoreline's wintering season starts. Know where the trucks run and when, and November is still a good month to be out on the north end.

Why a trail that opened in February is behind a gate in October

The spur sits on top of the levees around Pond A2W, a 435-acre former salt pond that the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project spent last year converting. As Palo Alto Online reported in January, crews deliberately breached the levee between the pond and Stevens Creek to let Bay water in. They then built the trail extension over the breaches on two armored bridges, leading to a lookout over the Bay. The City of Mountain View lists the A2W project as completed in February 2026, with a community celebration.

The current closure is for repair work. According to the City's trail status page, erosion has damaged the pond-facing sides of A2W's eastern and northern levees, under the trail itself. Crews are bringing in earthen fill and riprap rock to rebuild them. That keeps the trail in place and keeps vehicle access open for Refuge staff, researchers and PG&E crews. The spur stays fully closed for the whole job. The northernmost stretch of the Stevens Creek Trail, south of the Refuge gate, closes for shorter periods when materials are being delivered.

The two agencies give slightly different start dates. The South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project lists Aug. 31 through the end of November 2026. The City says work began in September and continues through November until construction is complete. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service closure notice gives the same window. Neither agency offers a detour. Both segments are out-and-back, and the closures sit north of the last trail junction.

The trucks keep a schedule

A2W isn't the only project bringing in trucks. Three separate jobs are running at Shoreline this week, each with its own route:

• Pond A2W levee repair. Trucks take Amphitheatre Parkway to North Shoreline Boulevard and Crittenden Lane, then turn north onto park service roads and the Stevens Creek Trail. Expect to share the northern Stevens Creek Trail with them through November.
• Pond A1 material import. Trucks come in from San Antonio Road and Terminal Boulevard, then drive Shoreline Park's paved trails along the west side of Sailing Lake and across the Bay Trail. The City expects daily interruptions between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays, with flaggers posted at the Bay Trail and the Terminal Boulevard entrance. The restoration project says the trails stay open on weekends and on weekdays when no hauling is underway. It lists this work as running from late 2024 through 2027.
• Sailing Lake boardwalk. The City's notice, which spells it "Saling Lake Boardwalk," closes the area from Oct. 27 through Oct. 30 for City Project 23-44, Shoreline Park Water Control Structures Improvements, Phase 1, and says the dates could change. The state CEQA filing describes the project as removing the wooden boardwalk and gate at the Sailing Lake Access Road. It also covers replacing and repairing two water control gates at the lake and replacing a broken stormwater pipe from the Coast Casey Pump Station. Expect the boardwalk to be gone when the closure lifts. The filing doesn't describe a replacement.

That leaves two clear windows for the Bay Trail and Sailing Lake: weekends, and weekday mornings before 7:30. The northern Stevens Creek Trail should be back to normal once the A2W crews finish at the end of November. Schedules like these do move, and the City's trail page showed an update date of Oct. 16. Check it before heading out.

What stays open around the work zones

With the spur closed and the Bay Trail busy on weekdays, these are the closest spots that aren't affected:

1. Permanente Creek Trail is listed as open, and so is its underpass at Amphitheatre Parkway. The Stevens Creek Trail underpasses at US-101 and CA-85 are open too.
2. The Boathouse at Shoreline Lake is open for espresso, snacks and patio seating. The American Bistro next to it is closed for remodeling. The Los Altos Town Crier reported that the closure would last through the rest of 2026, for a kitchen and serving-area expansion and accessible restrooms. The operator hasn't posted a reopening date.
3. Rengstorff House offers docent tours Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 1 to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Tours are off on Nov. 11 and from Dec. 24 through Jan. 3.
4. Shoreline Dog Park sits outside the main entry gate and is open daily from 6 a.m. until half an hour after sunset. Dogs aren't allowed inside the park.

Families should know that the Play Scow is closed for renovation and isn't expected to reopen until 2027. If you'd rather help on the trail than walk it, the City has a Stevens Creek Trail volunteer workday at Sleeper Park on Nov. 11 and a pollinator-habitat planting there on Nov. 21.

The owl count usually rises as the levee work ends

Shoreline's biologists count burrowing owls every month. The City's wildlife and habitat page shows a pattern worth knowing this time of year:

Last year the count doubled from September to October and held at 20 through November. The five-year average also climbs from September into fall. This September's count of eight was the lowest September figure since 2022, so the October survey is the one to watch. In September, surveyors found the owls and 11 active burrows in the Northeast Meadowlands and on the Back 9 of Shoreline Golf Links. Both areas are well away from the A1 and A2W truck routes.

Water birds follow the same calendar. Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance's Shoreline Lake guide names November through March as the season for wintering waterfowl and gulls, including Surf Scoter, Common and Barrow's Goldeneye, and Horned and Eared Grebe. The September survey also logged bald eagle, American white pelican, long-billed curlew and white-tailed kite at Shoreline.

Two November Saturdays at Charleston Slough

Both of the bird alliance's November dates fall on Saturdays, outside the Pond A1 hauling window:

• Saturday, Nov. 7. A field trip covers Charleston Slough, Coast Casey Forebay, Pond A1 and Shoreline Lake, looking for sandpipers, ducks, wading birds and terns.
• Saturday, Nov. 14. A fall migration drop-in at the Charleston Slough observation deck covers bird identification and behavior. No registration is needed, and loaner binoculars are on hand.

The Nov. 7 route includes Pond A1, the same pond the weekday trucks are filling. That makes it a good chance to see the next phase of the work in person.

What the trucks are building at Pond A1

Pond A1 covers 275 acres north of Shoreline Park and east of Charleston Slough. The plan converts it from open water behind levees into tidal marsh by letting sediment settle until marsh plants can take hold. It also adds new habitat islands and improves the existing levees. The City's notice lists the material-import work from December 2024 until summer 2027.

Project manager Dave Halsing told Palo Alto Online that when A1 is eventually breached, the result will be "one big marsh," almost 700 acres of connected wetland with A2W. He also said "Fish will be able to go back and forth between the two ponds." He described the public access too: "There will be a short section of trail in one corner with a viewing area and there'll be another viewing area inside of Shoreline Park, kind of on the Bay Trail, looking down into the pond."

The City has its own related work on its northernmost levees, including erosion protection and Coast Casey levee improvements. The City's project page says its agreements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California State Coastal Conservancy were approved on June 23, 2026, and that project is now in design with completion listed for spring 2028. So trucks on the west side of Sailing Lake will likely be a weekday fixture for a while yet. The A2W spur should be back once the levee repairs wrap up in late November.

How the north end of Mountain View changes over the next few years, with a reopened spur, a growing marsh and new viewing areas over Pond A1, matters to anyone who owns a home nearby. If you're curious how being close to Shoreline figures into what your home is worth today, Vicki Ferrando can walk you through it with local sales data. Request Your Complimentary Market Valuation.