Hiking Sierra Vista Open Space

[canyonwalker]

This weekend we took advantage of the good weather to get out for a hike on Sunday morning. It was good we did, as by Monday morning it had already rained a bit overnight and the sky was cloudy much of the day. But Sunday... Sunday was beautiful. The sky was mostly clear, and the hills have been starting to turn green from winter rains.

We picked Sierra Vista Open Space for our hike, a relatively new park in the mountains just east of San Jose. From visiting there last April we know parking fills up fast and the district rangers patrol it tightly— way more tightly than the US Capitol on January 6. 😨 So I suggested we go early in the morning. Not just early enough to beat the crowds, but early enough to enjoy the light just after dawn. So we set our alarms for 6:00am and left the house before 7.



This is a picture from the edge of the parking lot. That's how awesome the views are up in this park near San Jose! And, likewise, that's why it fills up quickly later in the day.

We laced up our boots and set off on a trail that zig-zags partway down the side of the mountain being joining a trail that mostly follows a contour.



The view over Silicon Valley can be hard to tear one's eyes away from, but the view to the east, looking up into the rugged mountains that separate the Bay Area from the Central Valley dozens of miles away, is pretty, too.

But hey, those valley views!



We had hoped we might see some wildflowers on this trek. The wildflowers that greeted us when we hiked last year were amazing. See my blogs here and here. Alas, it's too early in the season. The grasses are just starting to turn green. Wildflowers are probably still a month away. We'll keep our eyes on the weather the next 1-2 months to plan more outings like this one.

Comments

[culfinriel]

Like I said elsewhere, so gorgeous.