Guides
The essential Henry Coe Hike: 10 arduous miles through the park's demanding mountainous terrain.
China Hole is one of the most popular destinations at Henry Coe State Park. Spring rains create a picturesque swimming hole at the confluence of two creeks, making the nearby backcountry campsite a prized locale for overnight outings. A day hike to China Hole is a perfect alternative if you hate to sleep on the ground but love to get your heart pumping...
The best introduction to Henry Coe State Park south of San Jose and Silicon Valley, California
Henry Coe State Park is all peaks, ridges and valleys, and its reputation for arduous treks is well deserved. Frog Lake Loop is the one shining exception. While the hike starts with a 400-foot ascent and continues with a knee-crunching 600-foot descent, the return leg is serene by Henry Coe standards. The midpoint is Frog Lake, a great place to...
2.0 mile trail near Henry Coe State Park Headquarters
The Ponderosa Loop Trail is about 2.0 miles long and starts at the Henry Coe State Park Visitor's Center, about 12 miles from Morgan Hill, CA. The trail is great for hiking and normally takes 1 hour or less
A lengthy hike or bike in southern Henry Coe. Bring a camera!
The massive Henry Coe State Park has many adventures, but "beginners beware!" Easy hikes are available from both Hunting Hollow parking lots and the Park HQ on Dunne Road. This particular loop, from the south-western Hunting Hollow area, gives a memorable experience and a memorable leg workout! After a leg-burning trek up to Willson Camp and Willson...
See the Bay Area bloom in a hidden corner of Henry Coe State Park. Strenuous 9-mile hike.
Henry Coe State Park south of San Jose is one of the best places see the Bay Area's spring wildflowers bloom. The park is all rugged countryside: hills, ridges, canyons -- genuine wilderness barely an hour's drive from a huge metropolitan area. The park's main entrance attracts throngs of flower gazers every spring, but few visit the remote Coyote...
Strenuous 15-mile hike captures the wild essence of Henry W. Coe State Park, southeast of San Jose, California.
This is Henry Coe the hard way: 15 miles with over 4,000 feet of ascent and a chance to test your legs on the "Short Cut" -- consensus pick as the San Francisco Bay Area's toughest trail. Henry W. Coe State Park sprawls over more than 87,000 acres of high ridges and low valleys southeast of San Jose. It once belonged to a rancher named Henry Willard...
The Bay Area's widest array of backpacking options await in the wild hills southeast of San Jose.
Henry Coe State Park is the wildest Bay Area backpacking locale, and the one place where backpackers can choose their own campsites without a reservation. There is a trade-off: Henry Coe is all former ranch land and many of its trails are old dirt roads designed for motorized travel. That means steep, exhausting climbs and knee-grinding descents. Still,...
Shady hike is a great getaway from the campgrounds at Coyote Lake County Park.
Coyote Lake County Park southeast of San Jose has plenty of options for boaters, paddlers and campers, but the hiking options were pretty thin until Santa Clara County acquired the neighboring Harvey Bear Ranch section, the halfway point of this out-and-back hike. This route starts across the road from the Lake View Campground -- a handy trailhead...
Trips
Mt Sizer, Henry Coe (Plus bonus peak!)
Madrone Soda Springs (historical), California, United States
Hiking | 15.8 miles
Hiking | 15.8 miles
A classic Bay Area hiking loop is Mt Sizer in Henry Coe. This hike is a minimum of 14 miles to do using the in-and-out shortest approach, or you can make a loop and do this loop. At about 16 miles it is just long enough to offer solitude and remoteness, but is easy to do as a day trip from San Jose.Between Poverty Flat and Blue Ridge, don't miss the opportunity...
An approx 13 mile hike to check out Kelly Lake and the wildflowers of Coe in March. The hike starts from free parking at the Coyote Creek entrance. There's room for about 4-5 cars here. I've posted a pic of the right side of the road, there's room for one more on the left side. Never gotten a ticket here despite the No Parking signs about four miles back on the road. ...
A nice tour of three peaks from the Hunting Hollow entrance. I had intended to only do Vasquez peak today since I'd been to Willson Peak before but when I consulted the map at a decision point I decided to throw in Willson and then added Rock Springs Peak later on so it became a trifecta of sorts.The hike starts along the nice flat Hunting Hollow trail with about four creek crossings, the...
Kelly Lake and the 7th Tarantula - Henry W. Coe State Park
Madrone Soda Springs (historical), California, United States
Hiking | 10.2 miles
Hiking | 10.2 miles
I took advantage of a day off to explore an area of Coe i've never been to before: The area around the Wasno Ridge, easily accessible via the Coyote Creek entrance. The inspiration for this trip came from another trip I saw on everytrail.com (188513 by Tom Mangan). Obviously, I was not going for the flowers (it's November! - although I did see a few blooming poppies) but for something that Tom...
Henry Coe - Coyote Creek Loop
Madrone Soda Springs (historical), California, United States
Hiking | 6.2 miles
Hiking | 6.2 miles
Coyote Creek trailhead -> Grizzly Gulch Trail -> Rock Tower Trail -> Jackson Trail -> Anza Trail -> Coit Road -> trailheadThis was a short but very nice hike with what I often refer to as my "muggle friends" or as Dwayne has named us, The Hillside Stragglers. We've been hiking together for several years now but not as often as we used to. We were looking forward to a good hike...
Henry Coe - Mount Sizer, the Narrows and China Hole
Madrone Soda Springs (historical), California, United States
Hiking | 17.5 miles
Hiking | 17.5 miles
Antony (Bullit) was looking for company to hike up Mount Sizer, and despite a recent tough experience with that hike (due to heat - see trip 209614), I was game. So were Joe and Sam.The route was similar to the one I took 3 weeks ago. Starting from the headquarters, we would take Hobbs Road (including the Shortcut) up to Blue Ridge and Mount Sizer. But we would then use Jackass trail...
Henry Coe: HQ to China Hole and back
Madrone Soda Springs (historical), California, United States
Hiking | 9.4 miles
Hiking | 9.4 miles
A medium-length hike from the Coe Park headquarters to China Hole on Coyote Creek. The weather was pretty variable -- a pretty steady drizzle for the first half, followed by sunshine (enough to fool me into doffing my rain gear) at the turn-around point, shortly followed by brief heavy rain and graupel. Fortunately, I had a new hard shell (a Marmot Transit jacket, bought on SteepAndCheap less than a week ago) and...
I did the loop from Coe HQ to Mount Sizer 10 months ago. (See http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=233344). It was by far the longest and steepest hike I'd ever done. It almost killed me. Well not quite ... but it DID change my life. When we got to Mt. Sizer I was completely "done". Legs shaking, heart racing, energy spent. And only 1/3rd of the miles were done. By the time we got to the...
Coe - Middle Ridge and Poverty Flat
Madrone Soda Springs (historical), California, United States
Hiking | 9.6 miles
Hiking | 9.6 miles
Laurent and I went on a nice hike ... from Park HQ over to Middle Ridge, down to Poverty Flat, and then back up to HQ on the Cougar Trail. After a rainstorm a week earlier the creek was flowing nicely. Cougar Trail was STEEP ... but then it's Coe, so I should have expected that.
I have been to Mount Sizer twice before. The first visit changed my life; I performed so poorly on the hike that it frightened me into changing my life dramatically. I dropped 40 pounds, and started hiking a LOT to exercise. (See EveryTrail trip 233107).The second visit - a year later - was a test. Would I perform better on this (long, challenging) hike? The good news was that I did. I...
Henry W. Coe SP - Middle Ridge, Poverty Flat, Pine Ridge
Madrone Soda Springs (historical), California, United States
Hiking | 9.6 miles
Hiking | 9.6 miles
A very enjoyable hike in a perfect Coe weather.No crazy Mount Sizer hike this time, we just went for a more reasonable few hours loop through MIddle Ridge and Poverty Flat.Sam and I met on the HQ parking lot at 10, and we checked out the visitor center/store first since no matter what, it's always, always closed after a hike.For a change, we took the Corral trail to leave the HQ. A...
Henry W. Coe State Park - Bill's Hill and Osos Ridge
Old Gilroy, California, United States
Hiking | 7.5 miles
Hiking | 7.5 miles
For quite some time, I had my eyes on Bill's Hill, a peak in Coe's far South area. On the map, it seems quite a simple hike. You just hike along Hunting Hollow Road and then take Bill's Hill Trail to climb to the Osos Ridge. The trail continues along this ridge until it hits Bill's Hill.I noticed though, that on my GPS, another trail, Osos Ridge Trail, would allow me to...
