Henry Coe SP 9-24-16

Monument Trail

We were spending a weekend in Morgan Hill where Maureen was participating in a horsemanship clinic with Chris Ellsworth. This clinic was all about working with cattle, and Chris is an expert, having grown up on a ranch in Wyoming. I went along to trailer a couple of horses, help out, and maybe pick up a little knowledge by watching. I find his clinics very interesting, but two full days would be more than enough, so I wanted to do some hiking too. The forecast was for increasing temperatures through the weekend, so I chose Saturday morning to hike. Henry Coe State Park is nearby, and I hadn't been there in about 30 years, so decided to check it out again. In the meantime, the park has grown a great deal, and it is the largest state park in northern California, with many square miles of wilderness. As an old guy with a sore knee, I had no hope of exploring it all. I just wanted a little taste.

I dropped Maureen off at the arena, and drove up East Dunne Ave. to the park headquarters. The road doesn't appear to have had any improvements in the last 30 years, and it felt pretty narrow and winding in my big Chevy pickup. I managed to get into a parking space in a small lot with lots of young backpackers with their gear spread all over, and went to the visitor center and asked for a recommendation for a short hike. A very nice woman ranger suggested a loop to Frog Lake and back, which appealed to me since it take me back through some of the same area I had seen years ago. These high ridges are the only place in the bay area that I know of where Ponderosa Pines grow, which makes this area rather unique.

Ponderosa Pines

My route took me on a trail up a steep hill and into the pines. It felt a bit more like the Sierra foothills than the Coast Ranges. Then there was a long downhill on a fire road. At the bottom, a sign said it was only .2 miles to Frog Lake, but I skipped that and turned right on the Flat Frog Trail. I wondered what was meant by a flat frog, but I soon got that it was the trail that was flat. The single-track winds along the hillside with hardly any change in elevation. That made it easy walking, and I was more able to relax and enjoy my surroundings. After a couple of miles, the trail came to the Manzanita Point Road. I thought I was done, but it was still another .6 miles on the Corral Trail back to the park headquarters.

View southeast from Flat Frog Trail

Even at my slow pace, it only took about 2 hours to make the loop, and I still had plenty of time to drive back down, pick up some sandwiches, and have lunch back at the horsemanship clinic. It turned out to be a very enjoyable hike. It's one I would do often if it weren't such a long drive from Hayward.

4.5 miles, 700 ft. climb