On a warm August day, Loralei and I were looking for a short, moderately strenuous hike not far from San Jose. We had stuff to do, it was hot, and honestly didn’t feel like suffering in the heat! The trail we decided on was in Long Ridge Open Space Preserve.
Located outside San Jose in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Long Ridge offers wide sweeping views, ridgetop meadows, and plenty of forest. It fit the bill perfectly for what we were looking for, and at only about 30 minutes from San Jose, the accessibility made it too good to pass up!
Miles/Elevation:
5.1 miles
738 feet vertical gain
About Long Ridge Open Space Preserve:
At a bit over 2,000 acres, Long Ridge Open Space Preserve is an area of protected land along Long Ridge between Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve and Saratoga Gap Open Space Preserve.
Long Ridge has a handful of shorter trails which can be connected to form longer days out, either within or without Long Ridge itself! Much of the preserve is grassland, but you will also find sizable forests as well. When the land that is Long Ridge was purchased to become a preserve, it was actually being run as a cattle ranch!
Getting To The Trailhead:
The trailhead for this hike is the Hickory Oaks Trailhead. Located on highway 35, also known as Skyline Boulevard, there is no real parking lot at this trailhead. Rather, it is just a small pullout on the side of the road with room for a handful of vehicles. If you just put Hickory Oaks Trailhead into Google Maps, it should pop up!
From San Jose, the most obvious route is to take highway 9 through Saratoga up to highway 35. At the intersection, turn right on highway 35 and continue to the pullout at the trailhead. It’s about half an hour.
From San Francisco, take Interstate 280 south. Eventually, exit onto highway 84 and climb into the hills. You will eventually intersect with highway 35. At that intersection, turn left and continue to the trailhead. It’s about an hour drive from San Francisco.
There is no fee to park at the trailhead.
The Hickory Oaks, Long Ridge Road, and Peters Creek Trail Loop:
The Hickory Oaks Trail:
Portola Redwoods has one of the best Redwood hikes in the Santa Cruz Mountains!
From the parking area along the road, a quick uphill section of trail gets you onto the Hickory Oaks Trail. Right off the bat, you’ll have hints of the views to come. Turn right, and quickly you’ll reach an intersection.
For more great views of San Jose, head to Monte Bello Open Space Reserve!
Going left at this first little intersection takes you on a short loop or bypass trail that takes you past Turtle Rock. It’s worth doing this little detour. The view is nice, and it’s not like its super difficult!
Back on the Hickory Oaks Trail, you’ll be continuing straight with a slight downhill grade for the better part of a mile. This section of trail is very exposed to the sun, and get’s very hot! The positive that comes with an exposed trail is lots of views, but be prepared for heat!
Hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains? Be sure to check out Castle Rock State Park!
Eventually about 1.2 miles into the hike, you will reach a four way intersection. This is the end of the Hickory Oaks section of the trail. You could in theory turn right and complete this trail counter clockwise, but we continued straight/veered slightly left to continue onto Long Ridge Road!
Long Ridge Road:
Long Ridge Road is a gravel road pretty typical of the parks and open space preserves around the Bay Area. Most of your time on Long Ridge Road will be a slow downward trend, but it’s pretty flat and makes for fast hiking!
Again, there is not a lot of shade on this part of the trail, so on hot days it gets pretty brutal in the afternoon! You will continue to have very good views looking out over the Santa Cruz Mountains, though you likely won’t be able to see all the way to the ocean.
Always follow basic trail etiquette when on trail!
Eventually, Long Ridge Road enters a bit of forest. The shade will be a welcome respite from the sun, and gives a little change of pace. The forests up on the ridges of the Santa Cruz Mountains are typified by lots of leafy trees, especially oaks, often covered in moss, as well as a handful of pines mixed in. You’ll find that mix pretty much anywhere in the Santa Cruz Mountains in this environment, and it holds true here!
The Peters Creek Trail:
Eventually, Long Ridge Road descends down and reaches an intersection with the Peters Creek Trail. You actually could continue straight at this intersection as the trail does loop back around. It would just add a mile or so to your hike. We turned right onto the Peters Creek Trail!
The first mile or so of the Peters Creek Trail is mostly flat, with just a little bit of downhill descent. If you can’t tell, the big climb on this hike comes at the end!
After about a mile on the Peters Creek Trail, you’ll arrive at Half Moon Lake. I don’t really know much about Half Moon Lake, but it honestly looks really out of place! It was strange seeing a lake just off the ridge, and considering the human infrastructure around the lake, my guess is it is manmade.
Unfortunately, the lake smelled like sewage, and there were tons of bugs once we got close! The gnats were awful!
Always be sure to follow the 7 Leave No Trace Principles when in the outdoors!
Once you get past Half Moon Lake, the trail begins it’s climb back up! You’ll probably be in a hurry to get away from the bugs, but staring you in the face is a nice little 200 foot climb up a series of steep switchbacks!
200 feet honestly isn’t much if you’re in decent shape, but it’s the first real climb on the hike if you do it like we did. We powered up pretty fast (because we wanted to get away from the bugs!), but if you aren’t in good shape, take it slow and just get up!
The Hickory Oaks Trail:
Once you’re at the top of the switchbacks, you immediately run into the intersection that you passed earlier to continue straight onto Long Ridge Road. To get back to the trailhead, turn left to return the way you came along the Hickory Oaks Trail.
Ahead of you is a bit over a mile of undulating trail that generally climbs upward. Expect short little 50-70 foot climbs followed by even shorter descents. It really isn’t a hard trail, but the combination of us not being in great shape, being annoyed by the bugs, and the heat made this a kind of miserable climb back out!
Before long, you’ll find yourself passing by the turn off to Turtle Rock, which means you’re really close! Just a few hundred feet later you will arrive back at the initial intersection that got you to the trail from your car. Turn left here, and the road is just a couple hundred feet away!
Topdown Lifestyle Rating: 7/10
This is a fairly underwhelming hike in an area that has lots of excellent hiking. The views are solid, but not great for the area. There’s quite a bit of fire road walking, and there are no real wow moments. This isn’t a hike I would outright say to skip, again it’s fine for a quick hike, but there are definitely better options in the area (a few are linked below!), and it’s certainly not on the same level of many big mountain trails!
Pros:
- Lots of views
- Well graded trail
- Easily accessible
Cons:
- No real exciting trail
- Lots of exposure
- Two Moon Lake smells bad
- The most bugs I’ve seen in the Bay Area
Alternative Hikes:
Monte Bello Open Space Preserve Loop
North Ridge Trail, Purisima Creek Redwoods
When To Visit:
Long Ridge Open Space Preserve is a 4 season destination. In summer, you can expect to be hot on exposed sections of trails, and to be comfortable on the shaded sections. During winter, expect to be cool in the shaded areas, but still be warm in exposed sections. Rain is most likely in winter and spring.
