The hook
A working organic farm in the Los Altos hills that opened the first youth hostel in the American West, and still rents you a bunk.
01Why it's worth it
In 1924 Frank and Josephine Duveneck started a farm and wilderness preserve in the hills above Los Altos, and they used it to try out ideas well ahead of their time. In 1937 they opened the first youth hostel in the West, and soon after, the country's first racially integrated summer camp. It's still a working organic farm and a 1,600-acre preserve, with animals, gardens, wilderness trails climbing toward Black Mountain, and that historic hostel you can book a bunk in. It's part educational nonprofit, part genuine escape, quieter and more purposeful than an ordinary park. Come for the farm and the trails, and know you're standing where some decent history got made.
02How to experience it
It's on Moody Road in Los Altos Hills. Day visitors can walk the farm and trails (check the hours and farm-access rules first); to stay, book the historic hostel through Hidden Villa. Spring brings baby animals and green hills.