Getting Out: On days when you feel energetic, a vigorous hike
sounds like a great idea. Other times, something shorter – a walk –
sounds better. Yet, there are those days when you can’t even muster
motivation for a walk.
On days when you feel energetic, a vigorous hike sounds like a great idea. Other times, something shorter – a walk – sounds better. Yet, there are those days when you can’t even muster motivation for a walk. Last week, Renee and I visited a sweeping overlook in Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve that was barely a stroll from the car.
The cubic monolith you see riding the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Jose and west of the valley sits atop Mount Umunhum (Ohlone word for “resting place of the hummingbird”) and marks the southern end of 17,400-acre Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve. This sprawling rugged preserve accounts for nearly one-third of the peninsula and south bay land that the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space Preserve has protected.
The Kennedy-Limekiln Area, just above Los Gatos, is the most heavily visited portion of the preserve. Accessed off of Highway 17 near Lexington Reservoir, energetic hikers, bikers and equestrians can comb the northern slopes of the preserve. Our lazy excursion was at the opposite end of the preserve on the flanks of Mount Umunhum.
The drive was half the pleasure of this trip. Almaden Road works slowly to the right as it traces the boundary of Almaden Quicksilver County Park and arrives in historic New Almaden. Long since closed, the quicksilver mine in this park was once the richest in California and home to 1,800 miners and their families. The mining museum is located in the Casa Grande, an elegant brick building on your left as you enter New Almaden.
The mine was an integral part of Wallace Stegner’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel “Angle of Repose,” which was loosely based on the life of Mary Hallock Foote. There is a lingering controversy about Stegner’s use of Foote’s life story (a volume of her ‘Reminiscences’ is available at Casa Grande) including accusations of plagiarism and angry Foote descendants.
The drive continues past New Almaden along Almaden Reservoir. When you turn right at Hicks Road, Sierra Azul OSD is on your left and Almaden Quicksilver County Park is on your right. In about a mile, turn left at Mount Umunhum Road and pull into the parking lot for a map and your last shot at a porta-potty. From this parking lot you can access the county park just across Hicks Road or venture out Woods Trail into the preserve.
I have not yet walked it, but in country that is mostly rugged chaparral, the Woods Trail sounds like a great shaded walk through a wide array of plants. Relatively flat, it offers great views across the valley and traces Guadalupe Creek through forests of Douglas firs, bay, madrone and even the rare California nutmeg.
Not today. Renee and I climbed back in the car, and turned up Mount Umunhum Road. The next two and a half miles quickly climbs 1,000 feet, the view improving around every bend, to a gate marking the end of the road and the jumping-off point for our ‘stroll.’
Here is a walk for grandma – even great-grandma; a level three-quarters of a mile walk along a fire road to Bald Mountain. Yes, it’s brief, but not without spectator value. Even as you step out of the car, Mount Umunhum reaches powerfully overhead with Loma Prieta even higher just down ridge. The trail to Bald Mountain enjoys a sweeping view of the web of drainages in the basin between the two mountains. The knob of Bald Mountain hides the valley view until the very end, then BANG, the entire Bay Area sits before you. Our view reached all the way to Mount Tamalpais in Marin County – a two-hour drive away.
Great drive. Great walk. Bring your lawn chair, book and the Playmate cooler to a quiet mountain top view with highway vista-point accessibility.
