Picchetti Ranch OSP

January 3, 2019

Pichetti Ranch Open Space Preserve is a small park belonging to MROSD (Mid-peninsula Regional Open Space District). Bordering Stevens Creek County Park, this small preserve has less than four miles of trails. This MROSD park is also known for hosting Pichetti Winery that is still functional everyday from 11 am to 5 pm.

Both the winery and the preserve entrance are located off Montebello Road in Cupertino that can be reached taking Foothills Rd/Stevens Canyon Rd from the north.

There is a short trail that goes around the winery grounds & seating area to connect to Zinfandel trail, the longest in this park. Zinfandel trail starts off as a wide dirt road going through easy hillsides with Stevens Canyon on the left. It was a chill wintry start with the ground sporting frozen dew in several spots. 

A short hike into the park, the trail skirts by Pichetti pond, an area earmarked as a sensitive habitat. The pond was drip dry today. Hopefully, the winter rains would return to fill it up with water in the near future. The picturesque trail narrows somewhat as it meanders its way south.

Little more than a mile into the hike, Zinfandel trail makes a sharp turn to the left and shortly thereafter, enters the neighboring Steve Creek county park. The dam and reservoir will be visible on the left as the trail goes down and south. From the trail head to where Zinfandel trail ends in the county park, it is 1.9 miles long.

Rather than walk back, I decided to create a loop out of this hike by taking the Creek trail and make my way to Stevens Canyon Rd. I had done this section of the county park with Apollo in April 2015. Creek trail runs along the creek which had some water flowing through it. There is a creek crossing required to reach the main road if one chooses to do this piece. After evaluating various spots where one could cross the creek, I decided to take off the shoes and wade through water, dry my feet and don my shoes again. The water temperature was surprisingly tolerable considering how cold the morning was.

Heading back, I walked about 3/10th of a mile by Stevens Canyon road before entering Pichetti OSP from Bear Meadow trail. The hike by Bear Meadow trail is essentially uphill from Stevens Canyon Rd, although not too difficult. While Stevens Creek dam was visible in one spot from Zinfandel trail, this trail offers a closer and more picturesque view of the reservoir. I was also fortunate to spot a large banana slug slowly making its way across the trail in this stretch.

Bear Meadow trail comes to the other side of the Pichetti pond. Walking around the pond, I stayed on the same trail until it connected to Zinfandel trail, at which point I turned right to head back to the winery and preserve parking lot. It is also possible to reach the starting point by taking the Orchard Loop trail, but the scenery would essentially be very similar.

All told, this hike was just about 4 miles with ~500 feet elevation gain, involving one creek crossing.

Here is the complete album of photographs from my Pichetti Ranch OSP hike.