Welcome to Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch County Park. This 4,595-acre park - featuring a 635-acre lake, provides camping and boat launch facilities, showers, 19 miles of horse, bicycle and hiking trails - is nestled in the Diablo Range east of the City of Gilroy. Dogs are also welcome on a 6 ft. leash.How to Get ThereThere are three entrances into Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch County Park:Bear Ranch - from U.S. Highway 101 in San Martin, take the San Martin Ave. exit. Proceed east on San Martin Ave. for 2 miles. the entrance to the park is on the left, one-quarter mile east of Foothill Avenue.Mendoza Ranch - From U.S. Highway 101 in Gilroy, take the Leavesley Road exit. Proceed east on Leavesley Road 2 miles to New Avenue. Proceed north on New Ave. .5 miles to Roop Road. Proceed east on Roop Road 3 miles into the foothills. Turn left into the park.Coyote Lake - From U.S. Highway 101 in Gilroy., take the Leavesley Road exit. Proceed east on Leavesley Road 2 miles to New Avenue. Proceed north on New Avenue .5 miles to Roop Road. Proceed east on Roop Road 3.5 miles into the foothills. Turn left into the park and proceed one mile north to the entrance station and visitor center.ActivitiesCoyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch County Park offers a myriad of outdoor activities.Start your visit at the park visitor center. There you can see exhibits on local wildlife, including live reptiles and amphibians. You can also purchase annual park passes and pick up park information. Rangers provide interpretative programs year-round. In the summer, rangers show movies and conduct campfire programs on weekends.Three-mile long Coyote Lake provides opportunities for power boating, jetskiing, waterskiing, sailing, canoeing/kayaking and fishing. The boat launch ramp is located two miles north of the visitor center. It has two docks, a 3-lane concrete ramp, paved parking and a restroom. For fisherman, the lake contains bluegill, black crappie, channel catfish, carp and black bass. 75 family picnic sites are located at numerous locations along the west shoreline. BBQ picnic facilities are located south of the Anglers Cove picnic area. The Lakeview Campground is located .5 miles north of the visitor center. It provides campers with 74 reservable sites. Each site has a paved slip, picnic table, bbq/campfire pit and food locker. The campground also has two restrooms and numerous drinking water taps. Call (408) 355-2201 to make a camping reservation or go online at https://gooutsideandplay.org.The Bear and Mendoza Ranch sections of the park have over 15 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails that wind through oak studded canyons; and on top of grassy ridgelines, providing spectacular views of the south Santa Clara Valley. Trailheads can be found in all three sections of the park.
Trails
Summary
Difficulty
Distance
Valley Oak Trail at Coyote Lake
Shady hike is a great getaway from the campgrounds at Coyote Lake County Park.
Shady hike is a great getaway from the campgrounds at Coyote Lake County Park.
Moderate
5.5 mi
8.9 km
8.9 km
Savannah Trail Loop at Harvey Bear Ranch
A pleasant, scenic stroll in the hills at the Harvey Bear Ranch section of Coyote Lake County Park
A pleasant, scenic stroll in the hills at the Harvey Bear Ranch section of Coyote Lake County Park
Moderate
6.6 mi
10.6 km
10.6 km
Guides
A pleasant, scenic stroll in the hills at the Harvey Bear Ranch section of Coyote Lake County Park
Shady hike is a great getaway from the campgrounds at Coyote Lake County Park.
Community Trips
The new Mummy Mountain trail at Coyote Lake Harvey Bear County Park opened in April 2010! Elaine and I were there on this day on a trail construction volunteer event. We helped remove invasive non-native milk thistle near the trail and helped with a number of other cleanup tasks necessary before the official opening.Wildflowers along the trail are really great, and they will get even better in the next few weeks....
I hiked this loop to prepare for an Introduction to Geocaching class I'm teaching for the Santa Clara County Parks on May 15th. (If you're interested, please contact me.) The class is on the brand new Mummy Mountain trail. The trail opened on Earth Day 2010 after more than a year of construction. In my opinion it's the best trail in the park. While I was looking for one geocache I had...
Coyote Lake County Park - Mummy Mountain
Gilroy, California, United States
Trail Maintenance | 4.0 miles
Trail Maintenance | 4.0 miles
I and a number of other volunteers hiked the Mummy Mountain trail at Coyote Lake County Park. This trail, under construction for a year, is not yet open; it will be completed and opened in April 2010. On this day volunteers hiked the sections of trail that are now complete and weeded out invasive Milk Thistle. It was a rainy day, but the trail was still spectacular. I can't wait until it...
Bay Area Ridge Trail: Coyote/Harvey Bear Tarantula Quest
San Martin, California, United States
7.3 miles
7.3 miles
A nice late afternoon hike in search of Tarantulas but unfortunately we were denied. On the bright side Laurent and I had a great hike and were treated to a lot of wildlife: Tarantula Hawks, Coyotes, Rattlers, Garter Snakes, Red Tailed Hawks, Ospreys and some pretty cool cows. Met a really friendly ranger and discovered how the trash (Beer cans, tequilla bottles, etc.) ends up about 30 feet off trail in this otherwise...
Summer's finally here and we decided to celebrate by doing a quick hike around Mummy Mountain.We decided to save the new Mummy Mountain trail for another day and strolled around the ridge using the Ridge Trail first and came back using Mendoza.Vetch is the most abundant flower right now. We also saw a lot of thistles, mostly in shady areas. There were a few Chine Houses on the northern tip of the ridge,...
A nice geocaching hike with Elaine, hotshoe, airsax and dragonswest. Fun time! It was an unseasonably cool 72 degree August day.
5.5 miles according to EveryTrail, 5.6 miles according to Garmin. Originally I was going to have us hike a little further north in the same part of the park but this worked out pretty well, and we were able to see some new trails. The trails on the east side of the ridge are more wooded, shadier, and tend to have more narrow and single-track trails. Also there was more flora (mushrooms,...
BART - Coyote Ridge Trail (Harvey Bear Ranch - Coyote Lake County Park)
Rucker, California, United States
7.2 miles
7.2 miles
Three purposes for this hike - walk another section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, see tarantulas - it is the season, and enjoy the dramatic skies as an early storm was on its way from the Ocean. We didn't see any tarantula but Antony (Bullit) really enjoyed the hike.We staged a car at the Harvey Bear Ranch trailhead, and then drove to the Mendoza entrance and started our hike there. The...
Great hike, we had a blast. Lots of deers (we saw over 20) and many wild turkeys (at least 50!). I had to redraw the hike which was 12.65 miles. Lost some pictures... only one made it!
Nice family hike on a gorgeous January(!) day. Longest hike ever for the 7yo, and also for the Mrs. I think. Awesome!
