Santa Teresa County Park Hike

Last week, my friend and I set off for a short hike after work at Santa Teresa County Park in South San Jose. I usually don't blog about my hikes, but this one is worth mentioning. Maybe some of you can go one of these days.

The loop path we took is approximately 3.5 miles long. We started by ascending on what I think is the Mine Trail. This is the closest trail that I noticed that is closest to the closest lot of the main entrance. Confused? Heh heh... The start wasn't very fun because of the incline and the sun beaming down on us. We continued on the wide dirt path, occasionally encountering piles of poop left by owls, horses, etc. To the left, we saw beautiful vistas of San Jose and the hills and mountains surrounding it.

Eventually, we made a right onto a wide gravel path. This was a little weird because it felt like a maintenance road. The views here are pretty nice as well. To the right, there's the developed city of San Jose with its high-tech companies huddled together in and near the downtown area and well groomed suburbia lined with rows of trees, and to the left, there's nothing but acres of well manicured farmland with small buildings sprinkled throughout. It was very interesting to see how the scenery can change so abruptly by turning my head slightly atop this hill. We also saw some really giant looking cows mulling around a couple of radio towers a few hills away. So we continued up this path, listening to the crunching of gravel beneath our boots. We stopped briefly at the next little landmark, an abandoned graffiti laden radio station. Well, I imagine it was a radio station, but not too sure.

This is where the fun began. We chose to go down a dirt path which is in close proximity to the station. I don't remember if there was a trail sign, but it's easy to see. This trail is quite narrow and rocky. The decline is gradual so your knees don't take a beating. As the sun crept below the horizon and the cool breeze dried my sweat, I hopped and jogged down the two mile trail. (I think it's two miles.) I found this part of the hike particularly fun because the weather condition was great, and the trail itself did not allow you to lose focus and take your eyes off of it. With every step, you have to make a decision of which rocks to step on and which ones to avoid. It looks rather easy to twist an ankle here. After snaking a little around the foot of the hills, we made it back to the parking lot.

This hike was refreshing and energizing. I won't mind doing it again. Maybe the next time around, I'll go up and down the latter part of the hike with the small dirt trail. That was sooooo fun!