Walk the Stevens Creek Trail north past Shoreline and you reach the gate onto refuge land. The newest stretch of trail starts there. The Song Sparrow Spur Trail runs 1.2 miles along the eastern and northern levees of Pond A2W. It has two bridges, a few benches, and views of open Bay water that Mountain View didn't have a trail to until this year. Since August 31, the spur has been closed so crews can repair levee erosion, and the published schedule runs through the end of November 2026.

The closure comes less than a year after a February ribbon-cutting, which can look like a setback. The design explains it better. This trail sits on ground the Bay was invited onto. The levee under the spur was cut open on purpose so the tide could flow into the pond. The bridges you cross out there span those gaps. A trail built on a working edge like that will have seasons when it needs repairs, and this is the first one.

A trail that crosses its own breaches

Pond A2W is a 435-acre former salt pond just north of Shoreline Park. The Mountain View Voice reported in January that crews built the trail extension on top of the levee between the pond and Stevens Creek. They breached that levee on purpose so Bay water could reach the pond, and they built two armored bridges over the breach points so the trail could continue to a lookout over the Bay.

The plan depends on the water doing the slow work. Dave Halsing, executive project manager of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, told the Voice that over the next few decades the tides will carry sediment up the creeks and into the pond, plants will take hold, and a marsh should form. "Nature (will) do the actual restoration," he said.

The project also built up the land around that process. Organizers gathered 180,000 cubic yards of dirt, mostly from local construction sites, over about three years before construction started. On the pond's west side, crews used conveyor belts to build five islands about 100 feet out into the water. That side is set aside for wildlife, and the public won't have access to it. So the spur on the east levee is the public's view onto the pond.

Construction wrapped at the end of January, at an estimated cost of about $20 million. Officials and community members gathered on February 20 to celebrate the work and the new 1.2 miles of public trail. City Council member Pat Showalter, a civil engineer who once worked on the salt pond project team at Valley Water, spoke at the event. The Voice's coverage of the celebration quoted her:

"We should be very proud of this accomplishment, and also, we should take great pleasure as time goes on, watching it develop into a marsh."

That idea of watching the place change over time also explains this fall's closure.

Why the first fall brought trucks

The restoration project says crews are repairing levees in the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge that were damaged by erosion. They're bringing in dirt and rock to shore up the Pond A2W levees. The work supports the public trail and keeps access open for refuge and PG&E maintenance and research crews. The levee under the spur also serves as a service road and as the edge of a wildlife refuge.

The City of Mountain View's trail status page, last updated October 16, 2026, gives the details for trail users:

• The Song Sparrow Spur Trail is closed for the whole construction period.
• The northernmost end of the Stevens Creek Trail, south of the gate onto the spur, closes now and then for shorter periods during material deliveries.
• No detour is needed. Both sections are out-and-back trails, and the closures are all north of the last trail junction.

Everything south of that point is unaffected, so a regular Stevens Creek Trail loop works as usual. Only the very end is off-limits. The project's posted window ends with November, but no specific reopening day has been announced. Check the city's status page before planning a walk out to the lookout.

What stays open at Shoreline through November

Much of the north end is still open while the spur is closed. If you head out on a November weekend, these places are open:

• Shoreline at Mountain View park is open daily from 6:30 a.m. until 30 minutes after sundown.
• The Shoreline Lake Boathouse is open, with espresso, snacks and patio seating. The Bistro is temporarily closed for remodeling.
• Rengstorff House offers free docent tours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 1 to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. The grounds are open dawn to dusk 364 days a year, unless the house is rented for an event.
• Refuge trails in the Don Edwards refuge are generally open sunrise to sunset. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the refuge supports more than 280 bird species and millions of birds during peak migrations.

The tide dates to plan around

The repair window is scheduled to run right into the year's highest tides. The California Coastal Commission's King Tides Project lists statewide King Tide windows of November 24–26 and December 23–25, 2026, and January 21–22, 2027. Its tide map has local times for the South Bay. The first window falls inside the last week of scheduled repairs, so the December and January dates are the safer bets for seeing the tide from the spur. Pond A2W was built to fill and drain with the tides through those breaches, and the bridges cross right over them.

Here's how the season lines up:

The Save The Bay plantings are the most direct way to help with the pond's next stage. The nonprofit was set to spend this year tending the sloped habitat between the pond and Shoreline Park. It's also raising local plants like gumplant and salt grass in its Peninsula nurseries to plant at the site, according to the Voice's January report. The November 21 and December 5 dates appear on Save The Bay's calendar without times or sign-up details, and a November 7 planting at the same site was cancelled. Confirm with the organization before you go.

The November 24 King Tides Walk is a few miles up the shoreline in Menlo Park. It's a free, roughly two-mile walk on Bedwell Bayfront Park and refuge trails, with an optional Flyway Trail tour that runs until noon. Even if the spur's reopening slips past the 24th, this guided walk gives you a way to see that week's high water.

The pond next door is starting the same process

The spur's story will repeat one pond to the west. When the Voice reported on A2W in January, work on neighboring Pond A1 was described as a few years away. The restoration project's current-work page now says construction is underway at the 275-acre pond. Plans include a new public trail, a viewing platform, and a habitat slope that will also protect Shoreline Park from erosion.

When both ponds are open to the tides, Halsing told the Voice, the result will be "one big marsh" of almost 700 acres of connected wetland, and fish will be able to move between the two ponds. He said A1 will have a short section of trail in one corner with a viewing area, and another viewing area inside Shoreline Park on the Bay Trail looking down into the pond.

Our family has lived and worked in this valley for three generations, and the Shoreline end of Mountain View has changed a lot in that time. If you'd like to talk about how this part of the city is evolving, or what it means for a home nearby, the team at Moles Group would be glad to set up a complimentary consultation. You'll find more of our neighborhood notes on our Mountain View page.