I frequently hike in Henry Coe State Park and have written about it here a lot. With challenging trails it is a perfect training ground for getting ready for summer climbing trips, and there are many options to choose from. After all, it is the second largest state park in California (behind Anza Borrego).

Deep in the park is a rarely open entrance station known as Dowdy Ranch. I’ve never been to this entrance station, so since it is open right now I decided to head out and do a short hike. I’m recovering from a calf injury, so I decided I’d hike the short loop to Burra Burra peak.

Trip Report

Dowdy Ranch is a 7 mile drive on dirt road from highway 152. From my home in San Jose, it is about an 80 minute drive. As the crow flies, it is only about 30 miles from the heart of Silicon Valley. Yet this part of the park is rarely visited and during my day there, only a handful of cars came and went. Oddly enough, I knew about 30% of the other people visiting this part of park on the same day. The hiking community is small!

From the parking lot at Dowdy, you have to backtrack about 0.4 miles down the dirt road to get to the Burra Burra Peak trailhead. From the road, an overgrown single track climbs up the hillside to the base of the peak. Wildflowers were abundant and I was there early enough that I wasn’t worried about rattlesnakes. In a few hours, during the heat of the day, you can bet I would have been swiping the tall grass with my trekking poles to check for the beasts.

At the base of the peak, a use trail leaves the single track and heads to the summit. While not a notable peak in any special sense, the 360 degree view of the heart of Henry Coe’s backcountry makes it worthwhile. It’s easy to forget how close you are to the densely populated Bay Area.

My leg was feeling fine, so I pulled out my giant Coe map and saw another peak within striking distance: Tie Down. Perfect! I could even extend the hike along a ridge, expanding my ~3 mile day into something closer to 8 or even 12 miles. Off I went to Tie Down.

I connected back to the main dirt road (in a stretch where cars cannot go), and followed it until another overgrown trail offshoot: Tie Down Peak trail. It took me down to Pacheco Creek where I hopped some rocks and started climbing up the other side towards the rocky Tie Down Peak. From below, this peak looked much more impressive than Burra Burra.

The trail climbed, then contoured around the east side of the peak. I noticed the trail pulling away from the peak, so I took a closer look at my maps. Turns out the trail didn’t actually head to the summit. No worries: I’m good with cross-country travel! So I took off to find a good route up the peak.

Starting from the northeast side, I kept running into overgrown brush. No matter where I went, I was ducking and twisting and scratching my way through thick sticks and leaves. The terrain got steeper and I was using branches and trunks to pull myself up the mountainside. Finally, the summit!

Sorry, very few pictures from the climb of Tie Down since I was trying not to die.

The summit was pretty open and had some nice rock outcroppings where I could rest for a moment. The climb up was terrible – there was no way I was going down that way. I gave the peak a 360 degree inspection and decided that the rock face to the west was my best bet. It looked loose but scramble-able. There was some brush at the bottom but it didn’t go on as long as what I had climbed through.

My descent route from above – it didn’t look quite as bad from here, but it was worse than it looked.

Well, that rock face wasn’t any better than the bushes. Hardly any step was sturdy, with ball bearing like rocks taking my feet out from under me, large loose rocks masquerading as bedrock, and the constant vigilance required for rattlesnakes sunning themselves on the exposed face. It took me forever to step, slide, and smear my way down the rock, only to find myself in bushes that were no better than the back side.

This photo looks back on Tie Down. I descended on the left slope into the bushes below. If I had brought beta, I would have known that the steeper, rockier southern face was actually much better for scrambling if you’re comfortable with that kind of thing.

By the time I reached the road I practically kissed it. A break to take a snack and tank up on water was all I needed before decided that I was done for the day, and started my hike back to Dowdy. The walk along the sunny exposed dirt road was putting me in a foul mood and I wanted to get back to the car to wash off the dirt and debris clinging to my skin from Tie Down. I did finally make it, but if you  do hike that way out of Dowdy don’t forget that hot 700 ft climb required to get back to parking. It is interminable.

Finally back at the car I washed off, drank some cold water from my HydroFlask, and finally had a chance to meet Kevin, a fellow desert enthusiast, after a coincidental near-meeting in Mojave a couple of years ago. By the time I got in my car to head home the painfulness of Tie Down was already a memory. And a memory it shall remain. This is definitely not one for the ‘will climb again’ list!

Burra Burra and Tie Down Peaks, Henry Coe (05.11.2014)

36 photos

Map and GPS Track