Wood Road Entrance

October 12, 2016

This was our fifth visit to this remarkable park, after a fairly long gap. We were here previously last July. As with each of the previous hikes, we used a different staging area this time also. Providing entry to the park from south west corner, the Hicks Road entrance can be reached by taking Hicks Road off Camden Ave in south San Jose. 

This entrance is right across the road from Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve’s Wood Road parking lot. The excitement started well before we reached the parking lot. Hicks Road hugs Guadalupe Creek initially and Guadalupe reservoir little later. The road is at an elevation, but I spotted a large gathering of deer on the shallow / dry end of the lake bed. 

The park gates were not open when we reached there (little after 8 am). We parked at Sierra Azul parking lot, crossed the road, took an access trail from there to reach the main parking lot and trail head. From this staging area, there is but one option. Hike by Wood Road trail for about 1.5 miles. Wood Road trail actually continues in the neighboring Sierra Azul preserve, although dogs are not allowed in that section. 

There was a thick fog when we started out hike. The trail is a wide fire road, dating back to 1876 when the Quicksilver Mining company originally built the road. The trail goes through a shaded section before coming out to the open with Jacques Ridge to the left. The thick fog obscured any views of the ridge we may have had on the way out. 

The trail has some gradual ups and downs. More than half way, the trail will go by a two large rock formations (serpentine rocks?) providing a nice contrast and excellent photo op if you have a willing companion.

It is always fascinating to hike on a day like this. As the day goes by, sun would make a valiant attempt to burn the fog and it is only a matter of time before it succeeds.

We came to the Rotary Furnace, a spot we had hiked by on our second visit to this park. Continuing past it, we turned right on Hidalgo Cemetery Trail. On our second visit, we had also hiked just the beginning portion of this trail. Today, we walked all the way to the cemetery

Hidalgo Cemetery trail offers some fine views of the valley on the right with Almaden reservoir in the distance. Not surprisingly, the cemetery trail is a dead end. 

I couldn’t find anything written about the cemetery, but I suspect it must have been used by the miners living in Spanish Town in the early 1900s late 1800s. 

We turned around and made our way back to Spanish Town. By then, the sun was getting an upper hand on the fog and the valley was opening up in front of us. I had Apollo stand in the same spot from our March 2015 hike and took a photograph today. He is a year older, can’t say any more wiser, but still the lovable companion that he always is!

We went around the Rotary Furnace before joining Wood Road trail to start our hike back. With the fog burning off we had clearer view of the ridge and valleys on either side. The unique and controversial cube atop Mt. Umunhum was right in front of us all the way. MROSD is working on opening up Mt. Umunhum for hiking sometime in the future and it is unclear if the cube will survive or be gone. 

Our hike back had the added excitement of having to pass a 2 foot snake basking in the sun. I suspect it was just a gopher snake, but Apollo went on a super tight leash as we scurried past it.

And as we reached the trail head, we saw a chopper working its way through the high voltage transmission lines performing some kind of maintenance work.

Our hike today essentially was an out and back hike to the Hidalgo Cemetery from Hicks Road entrance. We wrapped up the 4.5 mile hike walking back to our car in the parking lot across from Hicks Road. This is not a very difficult hike. We ended up gaining about 200 feet few times, adding up to about 800 feet gain overall. 

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