Almaden Quicksilver County Park - Santa Clara County, CA

March 16, 2013

Somehow my 31st birthday turned into a 3 weekend celebration that I got to spend with just about all of my favorite people. It started a week before my birthday with a hike at Henry Coe State Park with Ann.  Then my actual birthday weekend was an excellent one spent hanging out in my hometown with my family and my extended non-blood "family."  And then the following weekend Monica visited from Seattle and we spent the weekend hiking with her brother's dog and eating and drinking. I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate.

Since neither Monica nor I have spent much time exploring the south bay, we weren't sure where we should hike, so I spent a little time with Google maps searching for parks near her brother's house where we were staying for the weekend.  I found Almaden Quicksilver County Park wasn't too far from the house and after doing a little research on the Santa Clara County Parks website, I decided this was the place to go. Not only could we take the dog on all of the trails, but the park also had lots of trail choices (the website says over 34 miles of trails), some interesting history, and a claim of spectacular wildflower displays. 

We entered the park on the west side via the long and winding Hick's road, which took us past Guadalupe Reservoir and was the type of road I could spend the day stopping along here and there to take pictures.  We then took the Wood Road Trail to the Hildalgo Cemetery Trail, which ended at the Hildalgo Cemetery.  The trail wasn't too difficult and had moderate rolling hills with a few slightly steep parts, but plenty of flat areas to catch your breath on.  The cemetery itself was a bit of a letdown.  It was pretty much just an area surrounded by a white picket fence lined by planted juniper trees. There were no remaining headstones or anything else indicating it was a cemetery. But the views along the trail looked down into the valley below and across to even higher hillsides glowing bright green in the sun.  We were still a little early for the peak of wildflower season, but there were still plenty of poppies and other early bloomers popping out. We also passed by the rotary furnace and a sign indicating the location of a former Spanish town.  After having lunch in the shade near the cemetery (only slightly creepy since it didn't look much like a cemetery), we headed back and took a short loop around to check out some old buildings that unfortunately didn't have any signs as to what they were, and then had planned to hike out to the Catherine Tunnel, but read the map wrong and didn't take a right when we should have, so we just ended up back on the trail to the car.

We had a little more time to spend at the park, so we decided to drive down past Almaden Reservoir to one of the parking lots of the east side and do a little hiking from there. We parked in front of the cute little St Anthony church (which I had to get some shots of) and then decided to hike along the Deep Gulch Trail, which seemed slightly less steep than the Mine Hill Road Trail. Whether or not that was true, I don't know, but we hiked up for about half a mile before I decided my hips and knees were pissed off enough and we should head back down. We also checked out some of the old mining equipment that was on display near the park's parking lot and picnic area. 

This is definitely a park I want to return to. There's still many more miles of trail to explore and  more historical sites to check out. There is also a mining museum that may be interesting.  And I think they might be right about the wildflowers, so I may have to come back sooner rather than later!

 Rotary Furnace (actual)

Rotary Furnace (how I envision it...)

Views

  Almaden Reservoir

Hildalgo Cemetery 

Unlabeled Buildings

One hot pup

Let me go, I'll save you from the fence lizard...

 Clematis

Chestnut-backed chickadee (he was moving too fast to get a clear picture)

Mining Equipment

St. Anthony Church

Henry Coe State Park - Morgan Hill, CA

March 3, 2013

As an early birthday surprise Ann took me on a secret adventure to Henry Coe State Park.  We escaped the Monterey fog mid-morning only to find overcast skies at the park, but sometime around lunch the clouds decided to break up and give us some sun and big puffy white clouds. Unfortunately the wind still stuck around, but it wasn't too bad and the day was still beautiful. 

The road to Henry Coe twists and turns through the hills that flank Morgan Hill and the views of the valley below are quite lovely. Especially in March when the hills and trees are green and lush. Careful driving is recommended since a good part of the road is barely wider than one lane. Coming down the hill we almost ran over a motor cycle driving in the middle of the road and there were plenty of cyclists to watch out for, but the biggest surprise was when we turned a corner and 5 or 6 turkeys were standing in the middle of the road. Well, maybe not too big of a surprise since turkeys are pretty common in the region, but no one really expects to roll up one a bunch of turkeys... 

Once we arrived, we paid the fee at the visitors center and ogled the nerdy science books, then started on our hike. Ann planned a loop hike for us along the Corral Trail, to the Springs trail, and then the Forest Trail that looped back to the Corral Trail. The Springs and Forest Trails meet at one of the park's roads, and we decided we weren't ready to loop back yet, so we took a quick walk down to Bass Pond, where we sat by the side of the water and had lunch. 

Our total hike ended up being about 4.3 miles and not very difficult at all. There were a couple of small hills, but for the most part the trail is pretty flat. The Canyon and Springs Trails run mostly through grassland and valley oak savannah with some nice views of - believe it or not - the canyon below and the opposite hillsides.  The Forest Trail is a narrow trail through mixed oak woodland (maybe it should be called woodland trail?) with huge tree-sized big berry manzanitas, madrones, and buckeye trees. March is a little early for peak wildflower bloom, but there were a few purple shooting starts and California buttercups poking up already. I can only imagine that in a month the hillsides will be filled with color, so there will definitely be a return trip soon - I only have 245.7 more miles to explore.

Turkeys!

Ann on the trail

Acorn Woodpecker

Canyon View

HUGE Madrone on the Forest Trail

Huge Big Berry Manzanita

Mistletoe tree

 View from the road

Coit Tower - San Francisco, CA

March 9, 2012

The third stop on my 30th birthday tour of San Francisco was Coit Tower. I've been wanting to visit the tower ever since my senior prom when my brother told me that after his prom his limo driver took his group up to the top of Telegraph Hill. The tower wasn't open at the time, but the view is still pretty great. Unfortunately for me, our limo driver wouldn't take us up there, even though he owed us some time for being late picking us up.  We had to instead settle for going home the long way by going over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was pretty cool as well, especially since I had never driven over it before.

My brother was totally right, the views from the parking lot are pretty incredible, but we decided to pay the $10 (or  however much it is - my friends paid for me as part of my birthday gift) and ride the very cramped old elevator to the top. The cost is totally worth it in my opinion. You get the full 360-degree view of the city - The Golden Gate, the Bay Bridge, the Transamerica Building, Alcatraz, the Ferry Building - you get it all...if there's no fog. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to be in the city on one of those rare days when you can see all the way across the Bay. And the tower itself is such an interesting structure. It was built in 1933 as a monument in honor of Lillian Hitchcock Coit, who was an eccentric wealthy socialite and honorary volunteer firefighter for the City. The top is open, but safety glass has been installed in all the windows. The number of people allowed at the top is regulated, thank goodness, but it can still get a little cramped. But most people were pretty nice about taking in the view and then moving back so others could see as well.