Taylor Trail

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

Moderate trail running option in Ed Davis Park/Rivendale Ranch with gentle slopes. The trail is mostly narrow, and one slope is quite steep. After about 1.2 miles, you'll encounter some sandy patch where you may get more out of the workout.

This is a less travelled trail in the otherwise very popular Ed Davis Park/Rivendale Ranch in Towsley Canyon. It quickly offers solitude and respite from the highway hum (very loud I-5) as you embark on the trail. Spring season offers an amazing dose of wildflower colors. This is an easy hiking or a moderate mountain biking and trail running option.

The Taylor Trail connects two parking lots of Rivendale Ranch, one in Ed Davis Park and the other slightly unknown parking lot at Taylor Trail Wilderness and Open Space. The more popular parking lot is the one in Ed Davis Park at Towsley Canyon, where the trail starts at the northwest side of the parking lot.

The trail gently winds through the high desert hills and valleys and at every major intersection or turn it is well marked. There are sections of trail where you'll encounter the patches where a wildfire last year burnt shrubs and trees. At around 1.7 to 1.8 miles, it reaches the other parking lot. Here, the visitors have the option to turn around and trace the same path back; or possibly for a shorter loop, head out on the Old Road and follow it back to the starting point in the Ed Davis Park parking lot.

Most parts of the year, the trail offers desert landscape of dry grass and shrubs. However, in spring the trail is green and blooming with tons of wildflowers. All year round, one can hear and see variety of local birds, lizards and on rare occasions snakes and family of deers.