When temperatures soar and tempers are short, many people find
it difficult to escape from the heat, and others from the air
conditioning. Luckily for us, we have nearby places like Henry W.
Coe State Park, where a little planning and preparation can provide
for an enjoyable outing on all but the hottest of summer days.
When temperatures soar and tempers are short, many people find it difficult to escape from the heat, and others from the air conditioning. Luckily for us, we have nearby places like Henry W. Coe State Park, where a little planning and preparation can provide for an enjoyable outing on all but the hottest of summer days.
Though Labor Day was one such day, I rose early, determined to take advantage of the extra day off to hike off the accumulated stress of the work week and shed the collected worries of modern life. My plan was to start early from the Hunting Hollow entrance off of Gilroy Hot Springs Road, and hike the beautiful open hillsides above, with their conveniently spaced oaks. Hunting Hollow is a wonderful place any time of year because it is flat, a rare and precious commodity at Coe. Walking along the dirt road through the hollow in the first morning sun, I know that in the spring the prairie there will be lined with wildflowers and before that it will be good to hear the water in the creek again and to see the big sky full of clouds above when the rains finally come.
Though most people enjoy Coe in the spring wildflower season or in the cool of autumn, the land and its creatures are busy living year-round, and in summer offers up a different but equally interesting nature experience. Less than a mile into my hike, I have already seen several blacktail deer and a red-tail hawk. The sleepy cooing of mourning doves and the songs of many other unseen birds replace the need for my iPod – out here there are no bothersome sounds of human activity to drown out. As I pass the trailhead for the Middle Steer Ridge Trail, a disinterested bobcat saunters up that trail and off into the cloistered oaks spilling out of Braen Canyon. Bobcats have a good-sounding scientific name, Lynx rufus. The thing I like about bobcats is they never seem to be surprised or worried about anything, and they are never, ever in a hurry.
You can go along Hunting Hollow for a couple/three miles and have a nice slow walk and a cup of coffee. Or, for the more ambitious, you can find your way along the faint social trails up Braen Canyon or Coon Hunter’s Gulch.
This is a good option on a hot day as there is plenty of shade, and, even now, occasional pools of water among large boulders that you can dip your feet into. For those seeking vigorous exercise, you can hike up one of the steep ridge trails to get views of the surrounding countryside and far-away peaks. On this day, I walk a ways up peaceful Braen Canyon, enjoying the silence and the shade of the large sycamores and blue oaks.
You have to duck under some barbed wire strung across the dry creek bed here. A little ways beyond I find some interesting bones and what I take to be a coyote pelt. Back here in the shade and quiet of the narrow canyon some ancient instinct brings loneliness and I turn back towards the Hollow.
From there I join the Lyman Wilson Ridge Trail in its upward struggle, and I am grateful for the frequent copses of oaks and periodic relaxations of the grade on this steep old ranch road. Just before joining the Bowl Trail, I stop and watch two white-tailed kites with their tell-tale black shoulder patches, hovering and calling to each other below me, hunting rodents on the hillsides that slope down to Coon Hunter’s. I wish them good hunting.
There are clicking quail and small snakes darting about every so often as I make my way to Wilson Camp. Here I break and take in the expansive views of hills, golden on one side and green on the other.
Some like to sit on the porch of the dilapidated old cabin, but it is hard for me to pass up the shade of the big cottonwoods there, even now at mid-morning. A spring runs out of the hillside there, sustaining these old trees planted probably before the turn of the last century.
On the way down from that place, I am lured into the dark coolness of Coon Hunter’s Gulch. On the map it looks like a shortcut back to the Hollow, but after a short while I realize it will not be a walk in the park. Much of the next two miles requires my apt attention as I clamber over, down and around large boulders.
In the flat parts there are stretches of waist-high grass that force me to slow down and take in the sights, sounds, and smells of this magical place. I am not in a hurry so I take frequent breaks and can’t resist putting my feet in a couple of the deeper pools formed in the depressions between the room-sized boulders.
Other times I just sit and read or just observe and relish the cool breeze coming up-canyon. They are the longest two miles of the day as measured by my watch, but by the time I come out to Hunting Hollow I am feeling as relaxed and carefree as Lynx rufus.
The day tops out in the 90s, but I am out back home well before then, feeling good about my experience in and around Hunting Hollow. There are special places and spots of shade for everyone to discover at Henry W. Coe State Park.
Always take plenty of food, water, and sun protection, and shoot for early mornings or evenings in especially hot weather. The park is open 24 hours a day seven days a week.
Jeff Winkler is a Pine Ridge Association volunteer.
