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Published on 07/31/1995 All articles from this issue

Hidden Villa closed to public during summer camp

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By Jan Shaw

Special to the Town Crier

Hidden Villa nature preserve in Los Altos Hills has closed its farm and trails to the public during the non-profit group's summer camps to protect the children from the potentially dangerous side of modern life and to decrease overcrowding.

The farm and trails, which are on private property, have for years been open to the public but the board decided that counselors were spending too much time identifying strangers who wandered into the camps, said executive director Judith Steiner.

The noise and presence of increasing numbers of visitors and hikers to the farm and ranch in the hills off Moody Road was also interrupting what was supposed to the young campers' quiet experience of nature, she said.

Steiner cited the example of a group of youngsters engaged in some activity. Several mothers, visiting the farm, arrive with children of the same age and urge their children to join the activity.

The counselors, Steiner said, are then faced with the dilemma of having to incorporate more children, who are not part of the program, or with having to ask the children to leave.

"Neither choice is desirable," she said.

To decrease the sense of crowding, the board also decided to cut back on the number of campers in the summer program, Steiner said.

The Los Altos Hills Horsemen's Association, in its summer newsletter, expressed some concern about the closing of the trails to equestrians.

The association said it had observed a "steady erosion" over the last three years of equestrian-related traditions at Hidden Villa and pointed out that the trails through Hidden Villa are essential components to the trail systems through the Los Altos Hills area and Rancho San Antonio Open Space District park lands.

Steiner said that equestrians, because of their small number, aren't a serious problem but acknowleged the difficulty of closing the property to some people but not to others.

Hidden Villa will be open as usual starting Aug. 19 from 9 a.m. to dusk.