Guides
A tough-but-rewarding hike to the San Francisco Bay Area's highest waterfall.
It takes strong legs and an even stronger sense of humor to take on the trek to Murietta Falls. If you can laugh off the prospect of hiking six miles one way with over 4,000 feet of ascent for a waterfall without any actual water in it, you have a strong chance of enjoying this hike. Murietta Falls is a remote, rocky slit in the backcountry...
Rugged but rewarding trek is best way to see East Bay backcountry
Ohlone Wilderness Trail is one wicked walk: 28 miles in two days with over 7,600 feet of elevation gain. But it's worth the strain as you soak up amazing vistas, scout for wildlife and marvel at being in such a remote locale so close to a huge metropolis. (Large raptors like eagles and hawks can often be spotted swooping down on their doomed prey)....
A great loop hike for wildlife and wildflower scouting at the park in the hills east of San Jose.
This hike gives a nice overview of Joseph D. Grant County Park, passing through its distinctive oak-woodland ecosystem but sparing you from the brutal ascents and descents that characterize so many of the hikes in this park. Grant County Park (often called "Grant Ranch" because the land was once owned by prominent ranchers of the same name) does...
11.0 mile trail near Grant Ranch, California
If you like sweeping vistas, wildflowers, and (ahem) squirrels, this is a hike you should consider. At eleven miles, its relatively lengthy, but starting at Twin Gates eliminates some of the elevation gain and makes it a little easier in that regard. The Canada de Pala trail goes up from the parking lot, past the upper end of the Yerba Buena trail...
One of the best hikes in the county park in the hills east of San Jose, California
This is one of my favorite loops in Joseph D. Grant County Park in the hills east of San Jose. It starts at Halls Valley Lake and climbs steeply into the nearby hills along the Yerba Buena Trail (with a highly recommended side trip to McCreery Lake). It turns at the Canada De Pala Trail and returns on the Halls Valley Trail. Along the way you'll...
Trips
After having spent the month of March ignoring activities outside of work, it was time to take a little time and go for a nice, long hike. With the rains that we'd received over the last week, I figured that Murietta Falls might be running. The forecast for the day of the hike was unsettled weather, turning wetter as the day progressed. I decided to take my chances and get an early...
If you like sweeping vistas, wildflowers, and (ahem) squirrels, this is a hike you should consider. At eleven miles, its relatively lengthy (for me anyway), but starting at Twin Gates eliminates some of the elevation gain and makes it a little easier in that regard.
It was a perfect day to be hiking, cool sunny and relatively clear. The Canada de Pala trail goes up from the parking lot, past the upper end...
Joseph D Grant County Park is famous for wildflowers in spring, muddy trails after rains, for exposed trails which get very hot in summer, and for fantastic views from the trails year round. It is also a part of "Healthy Trails" challenge set by Santa Clara County Parks (do check their website), wherein a hiker is set the goal of completing 5 routes out of a specified set, by Sept 2008.
The problem...
Lake Del Valle to Murrieta Fall (Ohlone trail)
Mendenhall Springs, California, United States
Hiking | 14.8 miles
Hiking | 14.8 miles
This weekend should have been a backpacking weekend but it got
cancelled because of the rain that was forecast for Sunday. The initial
plan was to hike the Ohlone Wilderness Trail from Lake Del Valle to
Rose Peak on the first day, spend the night at Maggie's Half Acre, and
go down to Sunol's visitor center on the second day. 10 miles each day.Instead,
we decided to hike from Lake Del Valle to Murrieta Falls, and come
back,...
This in an excellent seven mile loop on the East side of Joseph D. Grant County park in Santa Clara County, Ca. There's an abundance of wildlife in the park and the views of Halls Valley and beyond are spectacular. The park is far from crowded, though I did meet one group of septuagenarian hikers near the top (I was very impressed). The vertical number from my Garmin Forerunner 305 is probably somewhat exaggerated, I...
Big slideshow: http://picasaweb.google.com/brighto/GrantRanchSouthernScramble#I had never been to the Twin Gates trailhead or to what looks like a trailhead at the Smith Creek CDC and what I found out is that the CDC is gated off and there were a few no parking signs around the fence that encloses it. So I went back to Twin Gates and started from there. My plan was to loop on four trails; Bonhoff , Foothill, Hotel and...
We meander on the west side of Lake Del Valle. Deer Jaw trail and then follow the creek through the campgrounds. Shooting Stars are just starting to come up. A bald eagle flew overhead, but missed taking a picture of it.
Pics at Picassa:javascript:nicTemp();This was supposed to be an easy trip to try and get some off the cobwebs off, but I ended up doing about six miles without too much elevation gain. I took the Snell trail to the White barn, cut over to the Corral trail on an unnamed trail, jogged over to the Eagle trail to Canada de Pala to the Hotel trail and back. There's nothing special about this track....
I haven't been out hiking for a couple of weeks mostly due to a cold, so today's hike wasn't going to be a strenuous one. And I got a late start so it wasn't going to be a long one either.It was Grant again. I'm determined to know all the nooks and crannys in that park like I used to know Santa Teresa. The day was cloudy and cold; you can tell...
I've decided I'm going to hike at least 365 miles in 2010. I tried to do this last year, but didn't decide to go for it until April or May (after spending most of February and March on the couch) and got sidetracked by football in the fall (an aside: neither the Michigan Wolverines nor the Cleveland Browns were worth getting sidetracked by, last year). This year, I've decided that if I...
javascript:nicTemp();OK, so you're probably thinking I'm kinda stuck on Grant Ranch and your right, but it's close and I like the place and I'll branch out a little one of these days...In any event, this is the bonus hike because the power was out all day at work and I came home at about 11 and it was just a gorgeous day and, well, who wants to clean the garage anyway.I didn't...
javascript:nicTemp();So I went back to Grant Tuesday to do the loop I intended to do on Sunday; Canada de Pala, Hotel, Foothill, Bonhoff. It was another nice day after Monday's rain and the trails to the west of the Twin Gates parking lot were closed to bikes and equestrians because of the rain.The lower part of Canada de Pala is all downhill and serpentine. It runs along the power lines from the road...
I took another nice hike at Grant Park today. I parked on 130 above Bass Lake, took the Bass lake trail to an unmarked trail where I turned south towards the circle coral. We turned west on Canada de Pala, north on Eagle trail and then west on the Corral trail until we got back to Hotel trail. Finally I followed the Hotel trail back to the Bass Lake trail and then...
