The Los Altos area offers many opportunities for fine shopping, fine dining and fine standards of living for the whole community. In addition to the beautiful tree-lined streets, the city has many beautiful parks and recreational facilities. Los Altos also has many cultural events and theaters. As a part of Silicon Valley, Los Altos has a great high-tech atmosphere.

The city's downtown flower gardens, especially the islands at each end of Main Street, are among the most popular aspects of the city. Deep pink carpet roses line the planted island at the top of Main Street at Foothill Expressway. The garden also blooms with white petunias, candy tuft and fortnight lilies. At the other end of Main Street, at San Antonio Road, cosmos, in many shades of pink and red, and Icelandic poppies create a rainbow of welcome to those visiting the village.

Along Orange Avenue, pre-1915 cottages and craftsman bungalows along with an eclectic mix of other houses line the street. White picket fences enclose many front yards. An oval, beveled-glass window reflects from an oak front door in a craftsman bungalow.

Lacy-leafed pepper trees provide dappled shade. Shingle cottages nestle between small Spanish-style stucco homes with red-tile roofs. Geraniums, in reds and pinks, trail from window boxes on second story windows on one historic house.

Redwood Grove invites users to explore a natural, pastoral setting, observe wildlife, explore the Ohlone Indians hunting ground and wade in Adobe Creek. This beautiful place in Los Altos is a six-acre nature preserve that includes majestic redwood trees, a hillside trail, observation decks and a rose and herb garden.

Along Altamont Road in Los Altos Hills, at the top of the headland, visitors can look down the bluff and see a large open expanse with horses grazing and nature's pathways leading into Byrne Park. It's a beautiful area of green pastures and rolling hillsides natural to California. At the crest of the hill is Westwind 4-H barn, the home of a non-profit organization supported by numerous volunteers offering free programs of horseback riding to children with physical disabilities. A large riding area overlooks the green forests that surround the 15-acre property.

The observatory at Foothill College offers panoramic views of the Santa Cruz mountains, down into the Santa Clara Valley, and on a clear day, off into the mountains east of Santa Clara and San Jose. Twilight is an especially lovely time to catch the sun's last rays spreading across the landscape. The observatory offers celestial views as well, thanks to the efforts of the Peninsula Astronomical Society.

A community of high expectations, Los Altos has been recognized both locally and nationally for its outstanding school system. All eight schools are included on the list of the Top 100 schools in California and students consistently score among the top two percent in all categories of the achievement tests statewide. Students attend public schools based on their area of residence. High School students attend either Los Altos High School or Mountain View High School, which is part of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District serving grades nine through 12 for the Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View areas.

Students in the most southern part of Los Altos attend Montclaire Elementary School and Cupertino Junior High, both are part of the Cupertino Union School District and Homestead High School part of Fremont Union High School District. Some students from sections of Los Altos Hills are assigned to schools in Palo Alto Unified School District: Lucille Nixon Elementary School, J.L. Stanford Middle School and Gunn High School.

Higher education can be obtained from many nearby institutions: Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, De Anza College in Cupertino, Menlo College in Atherton, San Jose State University, Stanford University and Santa Clara University.

The initial development of Los Altos was credited to Paul Shoup, an executive of the Southern Pacific railroad. His vision was to link the cities of Palo Alto and Los Gatos by Los Altos becoming a commuter town on a rail line. Later he joined his efforts with others to promote the beauty of the area by creating the Altos Land company in 1906. Interested parties were lured to the area by free railroad excursions from San Francisco and complimentary picnics alongside the tracks in Los Altos.

The city grew and prospered. After World War II, Los Altos, like many of its neighbors, experienced growing pains that caused the town leaders to search for a solution to the growing fears of being annexed by neighbors. Their solution was to incorporate. Los Altos became Santa Clara County's 11th city on December 1, 1952. The minimum residential lot size was decreed at no less than one-quarter acre.