Getting Out: As you travel north from Gilroy, the first fold you
see in the Diablo Range on your right is Harvey Bear Ranch County
Park. Can a park that overlooks one of California’s main highways
really remove us from the hubbub and give us the peaceful escape we
look for in a park? Yes.
As you travel north from Gilroy, the first fold you see in the Diablo Range on your right is Harvey Bear Ranch County Park. Can a park that overlooks one of California’s main highways really remove us from the hubbub and give us the peaceful escape we look for in a park?
Yes.
The first time I saw Bear Ranch was in a pickup truck with Brent Bear, Harvey’s son. At the time, Brent had recently left a thriving photography business in Southern California to come home and run the ranch for his ailing father. I was running a brewery in Gilroy at the time. On brew days, Brent would come down to the brewery with several 50-gallon drums that we would fill with spent barley from the brew to take to the ranch for cattle feed. I remember him telling me about his stock’s reluctance at first to sample the grain they dumped off the side of the truck bed. Later, he told me that when the truck loaded with drums of grain arrived at the ranch, you didn’t want to fall off – the stampede was on.
Since then, the land has been acquired by the County of Santa Clara and combined with Coyote Lake into a single park encompassing 4,595 acres.
I remember on my ride with Brent how the land really began to sing on the ridge top. Beyond the bare slopes just above the ranch house at the east end of San Martin Avenue, Coast Live Oaks, Valley Oaks and Bay trees crown the ridge. Those trees and the rolling path along the ridge made for a delightful setting – Coyote Lake and Palassou Ridge to the east and the full reach of the Santa Clara Valley to the west.
My recent hikes in the park confirm this memory. Whether you are walking, riding a bike, or horseback riding, head for the top of the ridge. To that end, I recommend, especially for hikers, starting your hike from the Mendoza Ranch entrance up Roop Road on the way to Coyote Lake. Here, you are already above the valley and the park’s highlights are only a few steps away. From the Harvey Bear Ranch entrance, a hiker must walk over a mile by the shortest route to get to the ridge top – a long approach that, for my money, lacked adequate bells and whistles to compensate the effort.
On a recent weekday morning, I left my car with just one other at the Mendoza Ranch parking lot and began a walk along Coyote Ridge Trail. At first, it looks east toward Palassou Ridge beyond Coyote Lake and climbs gently toward higher ground. After a mile, just past the Mendoza Trail junction, your first view west to the south Santa Clara Valley opens. From this point on, whether you look left or right, it’s a treat.
Now you are on the crest of the ridge, rolling with its undulations. Each step provides a better view of Coyote Lake and the valley. Ithuriel’s Spear, an elegant single-stemmed flower with a wide umbel of beautiful blue blossoms, is everywhere right now.
The clock forced me to turn around and head home, but I had enough time to take the longer Mendoza trail back. It circles from the east side of a large bump in the ridge around to the west, revealing a grand view of the full sweep of the valley floor from San Jose to Hollister.
Can a park that overlooks Highway 101 transport you off the anthill and immerse you in natural peace? You bet, and it is so close, you can do it on an afternoon whim and still be home for dinner.
Ron Erskine is an outdoors columnist. His column appears every Sunday online at www.freelancenews.com. You can reach him at:
ro********@ms*.com
