Hiking Sierra Vista - Twofer!
Mar. 19th, 2023 07:42 amSaturday morning we got up early to visit Sierra Vista Open Space in the mountains east of San Jose. Good news: We had a great hike overlooking the city. Bad news: It was kind of short. We were back at the car by 9:15. What to do? How about a two-fer! We refilled our water bottles at the car and went hiking on a trail on the other side of the road.

This is the Aquila Trail. At times in the past we've hiked it it's been a riot of a wildflowers. Today, not so much. In fact pretty much not at all. Wildflowers bloom when there's good rain followed by a few weeks of warm weather. This season we've had tons of rain— so the first key ingredient is there— but not yet the warm weather. Maybe in another few weeks these hillsides will look totally different.

The Aquila Trail is a short loop, about 1.2 miles around. Together with our hiking on the Kestrel Trail earlier we're hiking maybe 3 miles total. On the one hand that's not much. On the other hand it's pretty good for getting a hike in before errands and lunch.

Though there aren't wildflowers out today we enjoy the Aquila Trail for its remote feel. With vistas like this we can imagine we're well into the wilderness... even thought Silicon Valley with its millions of people is just over our shoulder.

On today's trek we noticed something we've overlooked before: fossils! Some of the rocks up here bear the imprint of what looks like organisms from an ancient sea floor.
Like I said, the hikes were both short. We were back at the car by 10am. The parking lot was already full, and rangers were aggressively turning people away. I'm glad we arrived at 8:15. We'll have to come early again when we return for wildflower season!

This is the Aquila Trail. At times in the past we've hiked it it's been a riot of a wildflowers. Today, not so much. In fact pretty much not at all. Wildflowers bloom when there's good rain followed by a few weeks of warm weather. This season we've had tons of rain— so the first key ingredient is there— but not yet the warm weather. Maybe in another few weeks these hillsides will look totally different.

The Aquila Trail is a short loop, about 1.2 miles around. Together with our hiking on the Kestrel Trail earlier we're hiking maybe 3 miles total. On the one hand that's not much. On the other hand it's pretty good for getting a hike in before errands and lunch.

Though there aren't wildflowers out today we enjoy the Aquila Trail for its remote feel. With vistas like this we can imagine we're well into the wilderness... even thought Silicon Valley with its millions of people is just over our shoulder.

On today's trek we noticed something we've overlooked before: fossils! Some of the rocks up here bear the imprint of what looks like organisms from an ancient sea floor.
Like I said, the hikes were both short. We were back at the car by 10am. The parking lot was already full, and rangers were aggressively turning people away. I'm glad we arrived at 8:15. We'll have to come early again when we return for wildflower season!