Calero County Park
Directions: From Central San Jose, take Almaden Expressway south to Harry Road. Turn right onto Harry Road, then left onto McKean Road. The reservoir is on the right, about three miles south of Harry Road.
Parking Fee: None
Facilities: outhouses
Calero Parking
Trail head across the strret
Heading out!
Trails sure are a mess
Pausing ...
Nice tree
Hi horsey!
Walking on
The horse pasture
Another soupy section ...
hiking on ..
and on ...
View out from the trail
hiking on some more ...
heading downhill
pausing again ...
Nope, not that way
This way!
Hiking on again
and on
and on
enjoying the view
heading backup hill
The trail after me
waiting for me at the top
Looking back
View back down the hill
Posing with Maura
A coyote!
Dinner at Chevy’s
On Saturday, January 26, 2008, I did a short hike at Calero County Park with the Meetup.com hiking group, “Lets hike and maybe take a break if we get tired”
Route: Los Cerritos Trail -> Peña Trail -> Figueroa Trail -> Vallecito Trail -> Peña Trail -> Los Cerritos Trail -> end
GPS & TOPO! Stats
Distance hiked: 5.25 miles
Total ascent: 1129 ft
Trailhead Elevation: ~500 ft
Max Elevation: 1013 ft
Moving time: 2 hrs 24 min
Moving Average: 2.2 mph
Overall average: 1.7 mph
Time stopped: 0 hrs 36 min
Personal stats
Dates Hiked:
26-Jan-2008
Start time: 10:00 PM
Weather: Cool, overcast, rain predicted but it did not rain.
Water consumed: 0.5 liters
Finish time: ~ 1:00 PM
Total time: ~3 hours
Beauty: Oak trees and valley views as a reward.
Wildlife seen: birds, rabbit, coyote
Difficulty: I guess I would rate this as a moderate hike given the 1000 feet of elevation gain. Otherwise at 5 miles it is otherwise an easy hike.
National Geographic TOPO! software website:
Well then, I have lived in my little place in San Jose since November, 1992 and in all that time, I have never been to Calero. I don’t know why. It’s a nice park, OK, nowhere near as big as Henry Coe, but it is so very close to where I live and just like with so many of my other hikes, I had never been there! That is until now.
And it took hiking with the Meetup.com group to get me out there to this park.
So as the weather would have it, we actually had rain during the week leading up to this hike and I just was not sure if it would be cancelled or not. I kept checking the meetup.com page for the hike and all indications were for a go even in spite of predicted rain for the hike.
And not being totally afraid to hike in the rain, I packed my poncho and waterproof shell and otherwise dressed warmly for a potentially cold and wet day on the trail and went for it.
And after maybe a 15 minute drive from my house, I was there and I was the second one there. Maura was there first, sitting in her car waiting for other hikers to show up.
We ended up with a hardy little bunch and soon took off for our featured hike. The trail was muddy in spots though with water streaming from the hills but for the most part, we were able to hike without our boots getting too muddy.
This hike was a short one though, and only took us a couple of lazy hours to finish it. But within the hike we did have to climb a few hills and so I felt I got a bit of a workout even still. And after we finished, about half of us met up for a post hike Mexican dinner at Chevy’s. The only problem was that I think I ate more calories at Chevy’s than I burned off on the hike! Otherwise, it was a nice day out. Now lets see the pictures.
Oh, and by the way, this hike is more fully described by the Bay Area Hiker (Jane Huber) on her website. Now lets look at the pictures.
