Located essentially within the city of San Jose, Santa Teresa County Park is a prominent feature in the South Bay. The park’s rolling hills rising above houses and yards make it easily identifiable, and while it is easily noticed, I had never actually hiked there!
With California’s winter rain turning the hills into a bright green, it seemed as good a time as any to finally give it a try! Rather than trying out a short trail to start, we elected to do the full loop of the park. If you’re looking for a nice moderate hike in the city, this is a great place to start!
Miles/Elevation:
8.3 miles
1,768 feet vertical gain
About Santa Teresa County Park:
At just under 1,700 acres, Santa Teresa County Park is an excellent source of outdoor recreation in the South Bay. Located just 10 miles from downtown San Jose, and butting up against many people’s backyards, Santa Teresa is a great, easily accessible place to hike, bike, ride horses, and spend time outside. In addition, Santa Teresa operates an 18 hole public golf course (it’s pretty nice, I’ve played there quite a few times!).
The park contains about 17 miles of hiking trails within its borders, and makes for a great place to hike close to the city. Most trails are short and easy, but they can be combined into longer loops and outings. Elevations here range from just over 200 feet to 1,155 feet at Coyote Peak, so while you won’t be summiting any mountains, you can get a nice workout on the trails here!
Getting To The Trailhead:
The trailhead for the Santa Teresa Loop is located at the Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch. The most direct way to get there will take most down highway 85. Exit 85 onto Cottle Road and head south for 1 mile. After a mile, turn left onto Curie Drive and continue for about a quarter mile. Then, turn right onto Camino Verde Drive until it reaches the parking area at the ranch. The parking area is small, so you may need to find street parking.
The Santa Teresa Loop:
The Joice Trail:
From the parking lot at the ranch, head towards the hills and find the trail. Immediately upon gaining the trail, you will start climbing. It was a pretty tough start to the day as our legs were not warmed up and we had to jump straight into the steepest climb of the entire hike, but at least you get it out of the way at the start!
Always be sure to follow the 7 Leave No Trace Principles when in the outdoors!
The Joice Trail is primarily an old dirt road, and it pretty much just blasts its way up the hillside. There is nothing artistic about the design of this trail!
Always follow basic trail etiquette when on trail!
A bit under half a mile from the trailhead, the Joice Trail begins a long right turn as you enter and climb through a small wooded valley. Once you’ve turned right, you will emerge on an open hillside with huge panoramic views over the South Bay! The trail here is still an old road, but the views more than make up for the less than ideal trail surface!
For more great views of San Jose, head to Monte Bello Open Space Reserve!
Enjoy the views, and continue hiking up the hill. About a quarter mile from the valley, you will encounter an intersection. Each way takes you onto the Bernal Hill Loop, but you should take a right here for the full loop!
The Bernal Hill Trail:
The Bernal Hill Trail continues climbing from the intersection for another 200 vertical feet. After a bit over a quarter mile, this remaining climb will be finished, and you’ll be at the highpoint of the first major climb of the day! This isn’t the highpoint of the entire hike, and there is more climbing to do, but honestly the worst is done with!
Looking for huge old growth Redwoods instead? Head to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park!
From the highpoint on the Bernal Hill Trail, you will begin a steep descent down towards roads which penetrate deep into Santa Teresa Park. The roads were definitely a surprise to me after completing that climb. I was hoping to be somewhere a bit more wild after putting in that work, but oh well!
Descend towards the roads making sure you stay right at the intersection leading to the other half of the Bernal Hill Trail, and once you’re at the bottom of the descent approaching the road, turn right onto the Mine Trail.
The Mine Trail:
The Mine Trail begins unceremoniously by following a road and making a road crossing, but it will soon get you away from civilization! After the road crossing, the Mine Trail descends towards Santa Teresa Creek. Here you don’t have the huge panoramas of the Joice Trail, but you do start getting some really pretty views that don’t include a ton of human infrastructure!
With the terrain opening up a bit, continue straight on the Mine Trail, straight through the first intersection (where we accidentally turned right and had to backtrack)! Here the trail crosses Santa Teresa Creek and begins a long leftward curve.
Once around the curve, you will notice another path on the far bank of a small creek. You’ll be taking that path, so continue on the Mine Trail towards the intersection, and once you hit the junction, take a right to continue on the Rocky Ridge Trail.
The Rocky Ridge Trail:
Beginning from this point at the start of the Rocky Ridge Trail, the following 2 miles are definitely the best, most scenic, portions of the entire loop! I really enjoyed this part of the day, and I would recommend coming to Santa Teresa just to hike this short section!
The Rocky Ridge Trail immediately follows a bend in the terrain and enters a very pretty valley in the hills. The trail also pretty much immediately begins climbing, but as opposed to the unimaginative dirt road of the first climb, this ascent is done on single track away from civilization! We even had the place to ourselves and only encountered one other person on these 2 miles!
Almaden Quicksilver is really close and has more great hiking outside San Jose!
The trail follows the bottom of the valley for just under half a mile, and then switches back to hike up the southern slope. The climb up and out of the valley is very gentle, but you will be able to observe your progress as you ascend further and further from the valley floor.
Once you are fully out of the valley the trail switches back again to continue east. Here begins, in my opinion, the best section of trail of the day.
You’ll find yourself on the spine of a ridge with land and views sloping down and away from you on either side. To the left, you can see back down into the valley you climbed out of, as well as more of the hills of Santa Teresa in the distance. To the right, Almaden Valley lies beneath your feet, while the hills of Almaden Quicksilver and the Santa Cruz Mountains form the backdrop.
The views are awesome, but it really feels like a big time hike here. There aren’t a ton of places where you can do a cool ridge walk like this, especially in the Bay Area, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Heading up the ridge the trail does get quite rocky, so you’ll probably have to slow down just a bit to place your feet more carefully. It’s totally manageable and shouldn’t turn you off from this hike at all.
Before too long you will begin to see the end of the Rocky Ridge Trail in the distance. This trail ends where it intersects the Coyote Peak Trail, and that intersection is easily seen by the bench at the junction. Upon making it to the bench and joining the Coyote Peak Trail, we took our first sit down break of the day, and prepared for the final climb of the hike!
The Coyote Peak Trail:
From the bench at the intersection of the Rocky Ridge Trail and the Coyote Peak Trail, the remaining climb is laid out very clearly in front of you. The obvious highpoint not far in the distance is Coyote Peak, and the path getting there requires a bit of descending and undulation before making the final push towards the summit.
No longer will you be hiking on beautiful single track trails. The Coyote Peak Trail is a well maintained gravel road, which to be fair is needed to access the infrastructure on the peak.
After a quick half mile of undulation, push your way up the final steep incline and you will be on the summit of Coyote Peak! While it isn’t a true mountain, this point does stand about 1000 feet above San Jose below, so the views are excellent, and you should feel some pride in having climbed it!
Enjoy the views up here, then get ready for the descent!
The Coyote Peak Trail Down:
From the summit area, return to the main Coyote Peak Trail and take it downhill back towards civilization. The descent is quite steep, and you will be taking the fire road back downhill.
There are a couple of intersections to deal with, but for the most part it is pretty obvious which way to go: stay on the wide gravel road!
Eventually though, just over a mile from the summit, you will hit the end of the Coyote Peak Trail where it terminates at the Ohlone Trail. Once you reach the Ohlone Trail, take a left to continue back to the trailhead!
The Ohlone Trail:
Once you are on the Ohlone Trail it feels like you should be just about done. The climbs are done, the big descents are done, the views are gone, time to find the car and head out right? Unfortunately, you are still close to 2 and a half miles from the trailhead, and you have a lengthy return hike to get back.
The Ohlone Trail isn’t a bad place to hike. It’s narrow single track traces the curves of the hills as it follows a pretty level path along the edge of the park. You will still have some views to look out over, but you will be skimming the tops of houses, not looking down from an 1,100 foot summit!
Mt Umunhum is an awesome summit opportunity in nearby Sierra Azul with more great South Bay views!
Continue for just over half a mile until you begin approaching a road. Here, you have a choice of where to proceed. Option 1 is to stay left where the trail branches and climb back up around 150 feet to stay on the Ohlone Trail a bit longer; this is the more scenic option. Option 2 is to take a somewhat sketchy looking path across the road along the lowest reaches of the park, thus avoiding the climb but losing out on the views. We figured we had already seen pretty much all the good views Santa Teresa had to offer, so we took the easy option!
The Norred Trail:
This lower trail is called the Norred Trail, and while you would be joining it eventually even if you continued on the Ohlone Trail for a while longer, I’m not totally sure it’s a legit trail!
After crossing the road, the Norred Trail heads towards and follows the bank of a drainage canal behind the backyards of people’s houses. It obviously gets some traffic as it was a worn trail, and we did see a couple of people, but it felt like a very weird place to be hiking! It also smelled kind of bad!
Soon enough, you’ll join back up with the Ohlone Trail, and from there things seem legit again! From where the Ohlone Trail rejoins the Norred Trail to the trailhead is still another mile, so don’t celebrate the end yet!
The final mile is super uneventful and really dragged on. We were both ready to be done for the last couple of miles, and while that’s fine when it’s a tough hike that takes you somewhere cool, it doesn’t really seem worth it here. I think we were both thinking that there are much better loops to take here than the one we did, and lots of awesome short hikes.
Anyway, you’ll eventually rejoin the Joice Trail as it climbs up and away from the ranch, and from there it’s an easy minute or two back down hill!
Topdown Lifestyle Rating: 7/10
This is a decent hike that contains some legitimately awesome sections of hiking and some pretty bad sections of hiking. I really enjoyed the upper parts of the hike approaching Coyote Peak on the Rocky Ridge Trail, but the final 2.5 miles is bad, and the frequent road crossings and general busyness throughout is a turn off.
I probably won’t do this hike again as written here, but there are some trails in Santa Teresa that are fantastic. I would highly recommend some shorter hikes in the park, especially the Rocky Ridge Trail and Coyote Peak, but I’d advise skipping the full loop!
Pros:
- Good views
- Easily accessible
- Some really nice sections of trail
Cons:
- Busy sections
- Tons of navigating
- Very underwhelming sections of hiking
Alternative Hikes:
Pueblo Trail to Coyote Peak, Hidden Springs and Fortini Trail Loop – California | AllTrails
Coyote Peak and Ridge Trail Loop – California | AllTrails
Calero Creek Trail and Mine Trail – California | AllTrails
When To Hike The Santa Teresa Loop:
Just down the road, Rancho San Antonio has more excellent trails!
The South Bay is hikable for all 4 seasons, but you will get very different conditions depending on the time of year. Summers get warm, and you can expect temperatures in the upper 70’s or 80’s most days, with the possibility for 90’s. Fall and spring days are generally in the 60’s and 70’s, while winter is the coolest with highs usually in the 50’s or 60’s. Rain is most common from late fall through early spring.
I think the best time to hike this trail is actually winter or spring. California is at its greenest during and just after the winter rain, so if you can find a sunny day between the rain, this area will be beautiful! Otherwise, it really depends on what kind of weather you prefer. If you want to sweat, go in the summer. If you want it cooler, go towards the winter!
Links For Further Reading:
Santa Teresa County Park Trail Loop – California | AllTrails
1 Comment