St. Joseph's Hill Open Space Preserve — Attraction in Los Gatos

Nature trail To St Josephs hill open space Reserve. thanks to friends on face book for quite overwhelming response. I am writing second episode of nature travelogue to St Josephs hill open space Reserve.close to Lexington reservoier It is 15 min drive from vasona lake county park and is on IS 15. This hill climb is reasonable exhaustive and may be around 30% of sinhagada climb. the temperature being around 20 degree C, it is very pleasant hiking experience. we started from our home at around 9 30 am reached by IS 15 in about half an hour and parked our car to encounter beautiful view of Lexington reservoir Lexington Reservoir is beautiful and scenic 914-acre park and reservoir is just minutes from the urban centers of Santa Clara County. The park includes the 475 acre man- made reservoir available for shoreline fishing. The County park is also part of a chain of parks and open spaces connected by the Bay Area Ridge Trail, which, when completed, will connect Sanborn with Almaden Quicksilver County Parks as well as Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve and other parks in the greater San Francisco Bay region from Internet about St Josephs hill "One of the distinctive scenic backdrops to the Town of Los Gatos is the 270-acre St. Joseph's Hill Open Space Preserve, which provides a quick escape from the nearby urban areas of the southern peninsula. Steep trails wind through grassland, chaparral, and oak woodland, offering an interesting variety of environments. The purchase of St. Joseph's Hill in 1982 was a joint project between the District and the Town of Los Gatos. St. Joseph's Hill is a popular destination, offering trails that will challenge hikers, bicyclists, and equestrians. At the eastern edge of the preserve, the top of 1,253-foot St. Joseph's Hill features panoramic views of Santa Clara Valley, Lexington Reservoir, El Sereno, and the impressive Sierra Azul mountain range" now you start hiking and first patch is rather too stiff for around 500 meters and then the climb leads to a terrain and every height you climb , you visualize a still more beautiful view of Lexington reservoir. flowers and fauna are too much different than India obviously. you see California poppy, yellow coloured flowers, some red coloured flowers,and white flowers . At the end at the highest point we are beautiful view of a town on hill that is Los Gatos, richest area of California. the hiking has unique combination of lake on one side and green hill on other side. Decent is equally interesting . you need to follow basic rules of going down.You have to take equal time for descent and especially at that stiff down walk , we need to walk zig zag pattern and see that you change the first foot left to right we took almost one hour in hiking and were never exhausted...

Walk, Hike, Run. It all can be done here at St. Joes. Keep in mind the full trail is full of climbs, it's an average to challenging climb to the very top. Take water since there is no water stations in the Preserve. Watch out for Mtn. Bikers in the top most parts of the trail. You'll get some great views of Lexington Reservoir, Downtown Los Gatos, Sierra Azul Open Space. I've spotted Tarantulas, Snakes, Owls, Bats, Deer, and lots of lizards throughout my trail running adventures. Park closes at Sunset - rangers are fairly firm about this. If you do happen to be out there when it gets dark take a light. Lots of roots, and rock will be challenging to navigate. All in all it's a great park to explore and give something for your heart and...

St. Joe's has always been a favorite of mine. I am a distance trail runner however, this is a short trail. It is 4.2 miles long, so it's great for a short run if you want to finish in under an hour. It's fun to hike or mountain bike there too. There are areas with loose rocks so wear good trail shoes. A bonus is that it's not too crowded because it's mostly known by the locals. The reason I love this trail is because you get to work hard on the steep climb up and finish fast with the descent. It also has beautiful views of the Lexington Reservoir and of the traffic you aren't sitting on 17...