Heintz Open Space — Attraction in Los Gatos

Close to suburbia but has a surprising amount of wildlife. So far I've seen gophers, chipmunks, rabbits deer, gopher snakes, 3 kinds of lizard, quail and turkey. Even a deer killed by what I assume was a mountain lion.

Park essentially consists of 2 walks, both involving shortish but sharp climbs. The right fork, Vista I believe, is short and starts easy but the final part is steepish. Up and back is about half an hour.

The left fork from the entrance climbs for a while with some steepish sections. If you turn left onto Valley View after the shelter on the right about 15 minutes up there is a great view of Silicon Valley. Following the trail around there is the option to take the Santa Rosa Trail which goes up to Santa Rosa St or down to Bel Gatos Park, or continue on the Skyline Trail which loops back to the shelter and back down to the entrance. While the trail up to the Skyline/Valley View junction is double track/fire road, the Skyline/ Valley view are wide singletrack. Up, around the loop and back down is about an hour.

Keep an eye out for descending cyclists, dog/horse...

Ok, I give this five Stars based on my criteria, which might not be yours. I use these trails mostly to run on. They are equally lovely for hiking. In the summer they provide a lot of shade, and they have beautiful views out over the valley. Though the trails themselves are not very long, they can be used to connect to Harwood, Hicks road, or through belgato's Park. The foot traffic is never heavy on these trails, so you can run all the way through, and they're hilly...

Came here on a weekend morning, started from Regents Dr parking lot. Not too many cars when we started around 8AM, more after getting back. We didn't go all the way over to Belgatos but did the Sky Lane / Valley View loop instead. At one point there was a bench with a good view of the city below, and it was shaded for most of it after climbing the initial hill. Not a bad hike,...