Toro County Park is a small park to the southwest of Salinas, California. Its primary attraction seems to be the abundant picnic and BBQ areas which attract big groups and…
Believe it or not, there are still a few Bay Area summits I have yet to climb. Until Sunday, Knibbs Knob in the southern Santa Cruz mountains could be counted among those peaks. It’s a short but steep hike, climbing from approximately 1000 ft to 2700 ft in 1.7 miles.
With the new puppy, I didn’t want to be away for too long this weekend, so on Sunday morning I decided it was the perfect time to tag Knibbs Knob. I got to the parking lot at Uvas at 9 am and started off to the trail. It’s a little difficult to find, not being connected to the main attraction of the park, a waterfall loop trail. The hike starts at the gated end of an old road behind a group camp area.
Rancho Cañada del Oro is an Open Space Preserve just south of San Jose. It is one of my go-to parks for a quick hike since it’s such a short drive for relative solitude. Even on its busiest day you’d never guess you were a 20 minute drive from the 10th largest city in the US! I decided to head there on Sunday morning to get in a couple of hours of hiking in the ‘pineapple express’ – the warm rain that is currently falling over California.
Although I didn’t get the typical sweeping views or blankets of wildflowers, the hike was still beautiful. The lack of views made me look more closely at my immediate environment where I discovered newts, twisting ancient oak trees, and fresh tracks from the large mammals that live in the park.
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The list of local parks that I haven’t had a chance to explore is shrinking. One of its final members was Pacheco State Park, a nearly 7000 acre park west of San Luis Reservoir on the south side of highway 152. It is the southernmost parkland on the Diablo Range before Pinnacles National Park, and shares its land with grazing cattle and a windmill farm.
On Saturday morning I set out with two goals in mind: 1) explore Pacheco State Park and 2) get in a nice long hike. The trails in Pacheco are numerous and one can put together hikes from easy to difficult. Our chosen route would take us around the perimeter of the park and over Spikes Peak, an estimated 15.5 miles and ~3400 ft of elevation gain.
On Sunday I headed down to Rancho Cañada del Oro south of San Jose to get in a nice 13 mile hike and check out the wildflowers. Although it’s been a dry winter I was hoping that a little recent rain would help nudge the wildflowers along. They are out, but it is a disappointing season in both quantity and quality. I found a nice variety but they were few and far between. The most common wildflowers I saw were milk maids, Indian Warrior, Hounds Tongue, and shooting stars. A surprising crop of star lily kept me entertained, and it looks like the poppies are about to come in. It is by no means a bumper crop this year, but I do really love local spring hikes when there are wildflowers lining the trail.
Mt St Helena towers above the northern end of the approximately 30 mile long Napa Valley. Its east peak is the high point of Napa County, though the high point…
Yesterday I went out for a hike in Santa Teresa County Park with the dual goals of 1) getting some exercise and 2) checking out the current status of wildflowers. If you’ve been following this blog for a while you probably know that wildflowers are one of my favorite subjects to photograph, and every spring I get to start my ‘collection’ anew. The first week of February is still a bit early for wildflowers but nevertheless, I wanted to see if anything was blooming to set a baseline for the upcoming months. I found a few flowers, and I know that with the Shooting Star and Manzanita, other flowers will soon follow. Here’s the short list of wildflowers I spotted.
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The Jim Donnelly trail was just like every other trail in Henry Coe, climbing steeply to Wilson Ridge. Trails like this are strenuous on the way up and rough on the knees on the way down. Whoever built the trails in Coe had never heard the word “switchback”. Several trails climb the steep hillsides to Wilson Ridge (Steer Ridge, Middle Steer Ridge, Spike Jones), and none of them are easy. Someone finally managed to apply some common sense to one of the trails, and it has been rebuilt and rerouted with well graded switchbacks. It took about 2 years, but last summer the new Jim Donnelly Trail was opened much to the appreciation of mountain bikers, equestrians, and hikers alike.
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I always love to visit Uvas Canyon after the first few rains of the winter season. The waterfalls start running, and the damp air brings out the greens, reds, and oranges in the foliage. The forest feels primitive, like I’m lost in some kind of fairy tale forest (and near the bad queen’s castle).
After last year’s dry spell I was eager to see some running water and Uvas didn’t disappoint. This is a gem of a park that’s a short drive from San Jose.
Here is how the park looks right now…
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