Alum Rock Ride Report

Park:	Alum Rock City Park (San Jose) and Sierra Vista Open Space (Santa Clara County)
Date:	July 9, 2009
Distance:	13.3 miles
Ride Time:	1:53
Total Ascent:	2,411 feet
Map:	Official trail map
Overall Rating:	4

Alum Rock Park is a San Jose City park covering 720 acres. It has a long history, including being a rather fancy mineral springs resort in the 1800's up to about 1920. There are still many remnants from this period, but most of the original buildings have been removed. The park is located in a canyon along Penitencia Creek and has numerous picnic areas, trails (mostly hiking) and a Youth Science Institure.

The Sierra Vista Open Space is a Santa Clara County Open Space Authority area adjacent to Alum Rock Park. This open space spans 1,672 acres up to the top of the ridge on the north side of Alum Rock Park. This open space is well maintained and signed and basically consists of a single loop up to the top. The Open Space Authority also maintains the Canada del Oro Open Space.

I started at the Alum Rock Road entrance because I knew how to get there and there is no parking fee (there is a fee to park in the main parking lot). I headed down the service road, passing nice looking singletrack entrances on both the left and right (they were all signed to prohibit bikes). The service road ends on the Penitencia Creek Trail and the creek itself. There are several picnic grounds and a couple of stone arch bridges crossing the creek here. This is the site of a luxury spa many years ago where people would come to "take the waters" that still percolate out of the hillsides.

I rode northeast out to the end of the ridable portion of Penitencia Creek. There is a small bridge here than ends in the middle of a tree and a stair case down. The trail continued but bikes are not allowed past this point, so I had to turn around. I crossed over the creek on one of the arched stone bridges to explore the other side. There are several active springs still percolating into what used to be stone soaking tubs, several of which still had visible carvings on them. It was a quick trip to a bygone era.

I crossed back over and rode west on Penitencia Creek to the end, where it crosses over a bridge onto the road and then connects to the North Rim Trail. I continued west to the end of this trail, but had to check the map a few times to figure out where I was. At the end (road), I turned around and retraced my path to Lariat Trail. There is a sign that indicates it goes up to Eagle Rock, so I thought I should explore. After a bit of climbing, I got to a part that was seriously uphill. I tried to ride up, but the combination of a steep grade and very loose soil got the better of me. My GPS indicated a grade of over 30% where I stopped. The trail was even steeper and looser ahead...I don't think I could have made much progress with a hike-a-bike, so I turned around and headed up North Rim to the Eagle Rock Trail. This took me up to the rock and the view. The other trail was hard to see due to the dropoff.

I descended and headed north a bit more on North Rim to the Todd Quick trail. I ascended the western side of the loop and went through the gate into the Sierra Vista Open Space, transitioning from a San Jose city park to Santa Clara County Open Space lands. After reading their sign boards (there are several, generally well written and informative), I headed up the west side of the Boccardo Loop trail to the top. This is trail takes you up to the top pretty quickly with an average grade in the 15-20% range, but there is one straight and steep section out in the sun that seems to reach a 35% grade. After passing through some trees, the Boccardo Spur takes you to the top of the hill for a very nice view of everything below. When I was there, there was a flock of vultures riding the wind currents at the top of the hill, swooping down to zoom just over the hill top very close to where I stood.

I descended on east sides of the Boccardo Loop, Todd Quick and Weather trails. The eastern routes have a more gentle grade due to quite a few switchbacks. The Todd Quick trail was pretty nice. I continued north on the North Rim trail, dropping me down to the picnic area again. There is a paved road near the bottom of North Rim that heads off into the hills, but is aggressively signed as a private road. I headed back up to the starting point, with a brief detour to something labelled as Inspiration Point. I didn't find any inspiration there.

This was a pretty nice ride. The western side of the Boccardo Loop is certainly steep. The picnic areas looked nice. I was surprised to get as much riding and hill climbing in as I did since the map made the trails look very short. This place is worth a try.

You are visitor

Please sign the guestbook