Mockingbird Hill Entrance Again

February 2, 2018

Our sixth visit to Almaden Quicksilver park, covered the north-eastern section of this historic Santa Clara county park with more than 37 miles of hiking trails. I used the Mockingbird Hill entrance, our staging area for the very first visit to this part back in March 2015.  

I had planned for approximately a 5 mile loop covering Virl Norton, Hacienda, Mine Hill, Capehorn Pass and Hacienda trails. The spacious parking lot can be reached from Mockingbird Hill Lane, off Almaden Road & Almaden Expressway.

We started heading east on Virl Norton trail. The park borders a residential area here and Virl Norton trail hugs the edge of the park at the start. The wide dirt trail was surprisingly damp and even waterlogged in couple of spots, given that we had not seen much rain in the recent past. 

We chanced upon a large flock of wild turkey, some walking by the sloping hill side and few that took to the trail ahead of Apollo & me.

The 1.2 mile long Virl Norton trail starts off with an easy grade but soon starts to climb steadily. It stays that way until it reaches the Hacienda trail junction, a scenic spot with nice views of the hills on the east and the valley on the west. 

From here, we turned left by Hacienda trail, that starts off with a quick descent. Turning right here would allow a much shorter 2.5 loop back to the Mockingbird Hill parking lot.

The 1.5 mile Hacienda trail will put an even seasoned hiker through his paces. It starts off with a rapid descent from the Virl Norton trail junction, then ascends rather steeply before settling down an easier grade. After gaining around 600 ft. of elevation from the start, Hacienda trail starts descending, giving up all the gain.

There is a short less than 1/2 mile stretch where it is fairly level. Hacienda trail goes through a nice section of today’s hike, with plenty of greenery all around. 

At the next junction, we turned right by Mine Hill trail. This junction is quite close to Hacienda parking lot, from where we did our second trek, also back in March 2015. Shy of a mile, this section offers a steady grade with more scenic views of the hills all around. 

We continued straight by Capehorn Pass trail at the next multi-trail intersection. This is a short  1/4 mile stretch that connected us back to Hacienda trail. By now, the second stint of climbing was done and the mile long section of Hacienda trail back to the parking lot was essentially downhill all the way. 

There are several spots with excellent views of the Almaden Valley as well as the prominent Mount Umunhum radio tower visible here. 

We wrapped up the 4.7 mile loop with about 1300 feet in elevation gain overall in about an hour and forty five minutes. 

Here is the complete album of photographs from our sixth outing at Almaden Quicksilver County Park.