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Running trails in Sunnyvale, CA
Sunnyvale has 10 trails in the directory — 2 paved, 1 shaded, and 2 open 24 hours. 9 of them post opening hours, so you can check the gate before an early start. They're ranked here by rating weighted by review volume, across 7,804 Google reviews. Filter by surface, loop, distance, shade or lighting to get to the run you're actually planning — no made-up difficulty score, just the facts you'd check before driving out.
Las Palmas Park
4.7 ★★★★★ 2,587 reviews
24-acre tiki-themed park with a playground, water features, a dog run, tennis courts & bathrooms.
Sunnyvale Baylands Park
4.5 ★★★★★ 2,620 reviews
Developed park of 70+ acres on San Francisco Bay with playgrounds, trails & a wetlands preserve.
Braly Park
4.6 ★★★★★ 928 reviews
Park featuring Japanese design plus venues for sand volleyball, horseshoes, shuffleboard & tennis.
Raynor Park
4.5 ★★★★★ 554 reviews
Longtime park with dinosaur-themed play areas plus a field, horseshoe pits & picnic areas.
Sunnyvale Bay Trail
4.4 ★★★★☆ 525 reviews
Long, paved hiking and biking trail that traverses former landfills near a water treatment plant.
Fairwood Park
4.5 ★★★★★ 252 reviews
Public park adjacent to a school offering a playground, bike path, sand volleyball court & more.
Orchard Gardens Park
4.3 ★★★★☆ 133 reviews
Serene green space featuring basketball and tennis courts.
Panama Park
4.1 ★★★★☆ 133 reviews
Baseball diamond and soccer field featuring informal outdoor activities and picnic tables.
No trails match those filters.
How to pick a trail in Sunnyvale
- Match the surface to your legs. Sunnyvale gives you a choice: 2 paved and 1 mixed. Asphalt and concrete are fast, predictable and runnable year-round but the least forgiving; crushed limestone and dirt take the sting out of high mileage; boardwalk is flat and scenic but slick in the wet. If your shins or knees are complaining, the fix that actually works is varying the surface you run on rather than chasing one "best" one. More paved trails →
- Loop or out-and-back? A loop finishes back at the car with no backtracking; on an out-and-back you simply turn round at half your distance.
- Check the hours before a 6am run. 2 trails in Sunnyvale are open 24 hours — the rest can sit inside a park that gates at dusk and doesn't unlock until well after sunrise. 9 of the 10 listings carry posted opening hours — worth a look before you set an alarm. 2 are lit, which is what you want for winter evenings.
- Long run? Check water and restrooms first. 7 have trailhead parking, 8 have restrooms, and 4 have a water fountain in Sunnyvale. Anything over an hour and those stop being nice-to-haves — and in summer, shade counts double.
- The small things that decide it. 1 shaded, 2 that runners describe as quiet, 4 dog-friendly, and 1 smooth and wide enough for a stroller or a wheelchair. Busy or quiet isn't a good-or-bad thing here: a busy path is the safer choice for a solo run at dawn, a quiet one is better for intervals.
More on all of this in the trail-running guides.
Browse Sunnyvale trails by type
Running trails near Sunnyvale
Worth the short drive — the closest towns with trails in the directory.