Butano State Park

After the heavy rain yesterday, Butano State Park was moist and bursting with mushrooms and banana slugs today. My College of San Mateo Class took a hike that combined a service road, Goat Hill Trail, Doe Ridge Trail, Olmo Fire Road, Goat Hill Trail, and another service road to form a scenic 5.7-mile loop. Just east of where the Doe Ridge Trail intersects the Olmo Fire Road we ascended the ridge for lunch with a view of both the Little Butano Creek watershed and the Gazos Creek watershed.

This route takes you through a lush green and shady

second-growth redwood forest and upward through Douglas fir to a sunny chaparral ridgetop.

Early on, along the park road, we enjoyed a cluster of spotted coral root, which is a saprophyte. These orchids have no greenery because they get everything they need from organic material in the soil. We then saw a spectacular display of Clintonia in full bloom. Because of the recent rain we saw lots of  mushrooms and banana slugs. We even saw one baby newt.

On top of the ridge we ate lunch among a grove of knobcone pines, which need fire in order to reproduce. We also enjoyed a flowering bush poppy. On the trail back to our starting point we enjoyed the sight of many blooming Douglas iris.

TO GET THERE... From Highway 1 take Pescadero Road east for about 3 miles (past the town of Pescadero) and turn right on Cloverdale Road. Look for the entrance to the park on the left.

Santa Teresa County Park

Above the amorphous sprawl of San Jose, this gentle, grassy park covers 1,688 acres of low grassy hills and can be explored by 14 miles of trails. On the dry east side of  the Santa Cruz Mountains, Santa Teresa County Park is best enjoyed in the winter and early spring, when the hills are green and the temperature is comfortable.

From the Pueblo Day Use Area, my Foothill College class enjoyed a 4.1-mile loop that included the Hidden Springs Trail, Ridge Trail, Coyote Peak Trail, and Boundary Trail to the top of Coyote Peak, where we enjoyed lunch and lots of views. We could see San Jose to the north, Mount Hamilton and the Diablo Range to the east, the southern Santa Clara Valley to the south, and Mount Umunhum and Loma Prieta in the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west.

After lunch we headed southwest on the Coyote Peak Trail and then west on the Rocky Ridge Trail through a beautiful garden of spring wildflowers on a serpentine ridge. Among others, we saw filaree, fiddleneck, tidy tips, gold field, blue dick, blue eyed grass, wild onion, and most of all, California poppies in great abundance. We also enjoyed the fragrance of coastal sage and black sage and the sight of blue oaks, white oaks, and live oaks.

Though the distance of this hike is shorter than usual, it has us huffing and puffing as we ascended the Boundary Trail to Coyote Peak. There is a half mile stretch that is very steep.

TO GET THERE... From Highway 101 or Highway 85 take the Bernal Road exit. Proceed west on Bernal Road into the park. Turn left on the road to the Pueblo Day Use Area.

A Loop through Stevens Creek County Park & Fremont Older Open Space Preserve

It was a beautiful sunny day today for a six mile loop through Stevens Creek County Park & Fremont Older Open Space Preserve with my College of San Mateo class.

We started at the main Stevens Creek County Park parking lot off of Stevens Canyon Road. From there we headed south on the Stevens Creek/Tony Look Trail, which passes through a forest of oak, bay, and buckeye trees, and lots of poison oak. Fortunately, the trail is wide enough to avoid the latter. It also passes by the Stevens Creek Reservoir, which is quite low, even after the recent rains.

At about noon we stopped for lunch at a group picnic area at the downhill end of the Lookout Trail. Unfortunately, the restrooms were locked.

After lunch we charged uphill on the Lookout Trail, which is the most strenuous part of the hike. At the top of this trail we pass into Fremont Older Open Space Preserve, where there is a lot less vegetation and a lot more views along the Coyote Ridge Trail. Though the wildflowers were not exceptional this year, they were not bad. We saw fat and slim Solomon's seal, wild cucumber in abundance, yerba santa, Indian paintbrush, Indian warrior, blue witch, larkspur, lupine, fiddleneck, blue-eyed grass, and many others.

A short side trip to the top of Maisie's Peak offered a good view of the Silicon Valley area. We continued north

on the Coyote Ridge Trail which makes a steady decent back into Stevens Creek County Park.

TO GET THERE... From Highway 280 take Foothill Boulevard south. It turns into Stevens Canyon Road before you see the Stevens Creek County Park entrance on the left.

Portola Valley Trails

Portola Valley has one of the most extensive trail systems of any town in the country. The field trip I conducted today with my Foothill College class explored the Coal Mine Ridge area of Portola Valley and then looped into Windy Hill Open Space Preserve to complete a loop of about 5.5 miles.

We met at the parking lot along Alpine Road at the intersection with Willowbrook Drive. If the parking lot is full, there is plenty of parking along Willowbrook. We then crossed the road and headed up the trail and turned right (west) on Old Spanish Trail. Only a month ago I feared that the lack of rain this winter would result in a dreary absence of Spring wildflowers. However, a few good drenching storms in March changed all that. The foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains are as green and wildflowery as they are supposed to be this time of year.

We continued west on Old Spanish Trail, pausing to enjoy Indian warriors, hounds tongue, buttercup, wake robins, forget-me-nots, and lots of other flowers. We also enjoyed the sight of stately white oaks, black oaks, and live oaks, and we noticed that there are lots of galls growing on the oaks. We also stopped to sample some yerba buena and miners lettuce.

This trail runs just west of the San Andreas Fault, allowing us to study fault features such as pressure ridges and sag ponds. In one of these ponds we saw pond turtles and newts. Next to the larger pond we stopped for lunch, with views of ducks and turtles in the water.

After lunch we walked south on the Lake Trail to Alpine Road. We then sauntered downhill on the road, enjoying views of Corte Madera Creek and lots of beautiful big-leaf maple. We then took the Eagle Trail, which parallels the road to a beautiful stone bridge, which took us to the other side of the creek to continue our hike

northeast on the Hamms Gulch Trail and back to the parking lot. We stopped briefly to examine a banana slug.

TO GET THERE... from Highway 280 take Alpine Road exit and continue on Alpine Road about 3.6 miles. It is past Portola Road at the intersection with Willowbrook Drive.