When I think about Spring, I think about wildflowers. The month-plus long blooming season is a great time here in the area. Almost all surrounding mountains have places where to find patches with flowers.
Two years in a row we drove to Calero County Park. And this year, I wanted to do it again. On a Sunday morning, I opened the park map and realized that I see a network of new trails. After some googling, I found out that the land of Ranch San Vicente that Santa Clara County bought some time ago, is finally opened to the public!
Few hours after we parked on the new and almost empty parking lot of Rancho San Vicente entrance. This part of the park is very close to San Jose.
There two possible loops that could be hiked in the park: the shorter North Ridge trail and the combination of Lisa Kilough and Cottle Trail. We hiked the latest.
From the first mile, we found wildflowers: yellow mini daisies and soft California poppies. The Lisa Kilough trail goes on the side of the hill and opens a view over Santa Cruz mountains.

On the one meadow, we startled the big deer family. The hills here were covered with a carpet of the different wildflowers. The place is unbelievable.

The oaks had only small newly opened leaves, and I think that wildflowers weren’t in the full bloom yet. But the scene was fantastic anyway.

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On the last mile of Lisa Kilough trail, we met another frightened deer family. When they saw us, they froze for a few minutes (to allow me to make dozens of photos of them).
The Cottle Trail follows the northern side of the hill overlooking Calero Dam and reservoir. We got there hour or more before the sunset when the shadow of the hill colled down the air. I think it’s a great place to hike on a summer evening.

Other Calero hikes

The main part of the park in Spring