Story:
This wasn't quite what we expected, but it was an interesting hike none-the-less.
We parked in one of the neighborhoods above Los Gatos and started hiking up hill. It's narrow, single lane paved roads shaded by oaks. We passed by an interesting mix of old mountain houses and new money mansions. There's little, if any parking along these roads.
At the top of our climb and just before the end of the road there's a gate to the El Sereno Open Space Preserve. It's locked and has no parking, but beyond the gate is a nice fire road that winds along the eastern edge of the hills with great views of the Silicon (Santa Clara) Valley.
About a mile after a nice overlook you come to a very new and nice parking lot for about 20 cars. Unfortuantely there's a locked gate at the other end of the lot that says, "parking by permit only, contact the District Office at (650) 691-1200". There's park service home just beyond the gate.
From there is was again narrow paved roads, some signed, "private road, no bikes". There weren't any gates on these and they sure looked like public roads with driveways off this way and that to big houses in the hills with great views.
We walked down pretty Canyon Drive, shady and damp with a creek running along the left side of the road. Eventually it flatten out and we entered the "suburbs" of Saratoga. We wound our way through these neighborhoods and right about lunch time came out at the far end of downtown Saratoga. After a bit of lunch we hopped in the shuttle car that we had parked earlier that morning and headed home.
This wasn't quite what we expected, but it was an interesting hike none-the-less.
We parked in one of the neighborhoods above Los Gatos and started hiking up hill. It's narrow, single lane paved roads shaded by oaks. We passed by an interesting mix of old mountain houses and new money mansions. There's little, if any parking along these roads.
At the top of our climb and just before the end of the road there's a gate to the El Sereno Open Space Preserve. It's locked and has no parking, but beyond the gate is a nice fire road that winds along the eastern edge of the hills with great views of the Silicon (Santa Clara) Valley.
About a mile after a nice overlook you come to a very new and nice parking lot for about 20 cars. Unfortuantely there's a locked gate at the other end of the lot that says, "parking by permit only, contact the District Office at (650) 691-1200". There's park service home just beyond the gate.
From there is was again narrow paved roads, some signed, "private road, no bikes". There weren't any gates on these and they sure looked like public roads with driveways off this way and that to big houses in the hills with great views.
We walked down pretty Canyon Drive, shady and damp with a creek running along the left side of the road. Eventually it flatten out and we entered the "suburbs" of Saratoga. We wound our way through these neighborhoods and right about lunch time came out at the far end of downtown Saratoga. After a bit of lunch we hopped in the shuttle car that we had parked earlier that morning and headed home.
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