Cooley Landing gives East Palo Alto a public bay edge

Cooley Landing gives East Palo Alto a public way to meet the bay. The park sits on a peninsula at the eastern end of Bay Road, with Ravenswood Open Space Preserve nearby and the Palo Alto Baylands to the south.

The newer park story is practical and hopeful. Cooley Landing opened to the public in 2012. The education center opened in 2015, and later improvements added outdoor learning space, restrooms, picnic areas, pathways, signs, seating, and lighting.

There is an older layer too. Lester Cooley built a brick factory in the area now known as Cooley Landing, before the area later became more tied to farming. The bay edge has a working-place memory along with the nature view.

For a first visit, go for a short walk, look across the marsh, and read the setting slowly. It is one of the clearest places to feel East Palo Alto as a Bay-side city.