Webb Canyon Road Entrance

July 7, 2015

Our fourth visit to Almaden Quicksilver County Park, starting from a fourth trail head. The entrance by Webb Canyon Rd is the smallest by far and has limited street parking by the gate. Webb Canyon Rd entrance is located off Almaden Expwy / Trinidad Ave / Elwood Rd.

My plan was to cover some more of the 34+ miles of trails in this huge park with as little an overlap as possible with our earlier hikes here. The loop I’d decided to hike today was Webb Canyon Trail -> New Almaden Trail -> Prospect #3 -> Randol Trail -> Mine Hill Trail -> Cinnabar Trail -> New Almaden Trail -> Webb Canyon Trail.

A short walk involving a gentle climb by Webb Canyon Rd past the gate took us to Webb Canyon Trail. From here, we took the single-track dirt trail to reach the intersection of the now very familiar New Almaden Trail. Taking a left here, Apollo and I walked the 1.3 mile stretch to Prospect #3 Trail.

As always, Apollo was happy to pose for photographs at my bidding. Close to the Prospect #3 Trail junction, I asked him to check out a tree bark. He surprised me by jumping straight up for one of the best shots I have of my boy! I am suspecting that he must have some cat and goat genes in him to do the tree and rock climbing he has demonstrated!

A short quarter-mile stretch but 400+ feet climb by Prospect #3 took us to the Randol Trail intersection. We had hiked this section of Prospect #3 in our very first visit. Do take a moment to enjoy the fine views from Prospest #3 as it gains in elevation.

Unlike the single-track New Almaden Trail, Randol Trail is a wide fire road but still had lot of shade. The scenery was quite interesting. It almost felt like fall, with vivid colors and dry grass. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fall and I suspect these are just the colors of the California drought!

A pleasant 1.5 mile walk on Randol Trail got us to Mine Hill Trail, right by Guadalupe Reservoir. The neighboring Sierra Azul Preserve was covered with clouds at the mountain top, providing a great view. And the weather was near perfect – high 60s/low 70s, cloudy and cool with a gentle breeze, making this hike that much more enjoyable.

A short stretch by Mine Hill and Cinnabar Trail – we’d done this short stretch on our third hike at the park. I should have mentioned this before, but at 0.1 mile length, Cinnabar Trail is the shortest named trail I’ve hiked! Turning right at New Almaden Trail, we made our way back to Webb Canyon Trail and to the park entrance walking through the shaded single track trail covered in colorful foliage.

We logged 5.8 mile in our hike today in just less than 2 hours. Including the Prospect #3 ascent, we ended up climbing some 750+ feet.  For now, I feel we’ve explored this park fairly well, although I can envision one more hike from Wood Road entrance and focusing on the west side of the park. 

Here is the complete album of photographs from our fourth hike in Almaden Quicksilver County Park.