Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve
Hike Review
Almost 20 years ago, I organized a volunteering effort at Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve to remove barbed wire fences that were a nuisance to the elk that were living here. At that time, the preserve was not open to the public. But a few years ago, it opened to the public, and our dear friends, the Absher family, had nice things to say about it—so it was time for us to definitely check it out!
The parking lot was extremely large with a ton of parking spaces. I do hope lots of people come check out this preserve as I thought it was beautiful.
The park and trails were clean with no trash to be seen. Probably due to it not being very popular, but maybe due to conscientious hikers?
We hiked the trail in almost-rainy conditions, and the ground wasn’t too muddy.
The views were gorgeous as we got to see rain squalls hit Morgan Hill and San Jose while we stayed dry.
What I Learned
We came across a small group of elk, and I thought they were initially deer until Cassie pointed out how large they were. There were three adult elk with one young elk. Hopefully, it means that the elk population is growing and that the herd population is healthy.
At the beginning of the hike, there’s a station where one needs to clean their shoes to hike on the trail. Pretty cool that we have the funding to provide a shoe cleaning station to better protect the environment from all the junk that can stick to the bottom of our shoes!
What Happened?
2.5 miles, 54 mins, 504 ft of ascent
The hike at Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve is simple with one loop as the only trail available. To me, the hike is like a mini-Mission Peak. There is not much vegetation, so there’s no shade, and the trail is rather steep in parts. But unlike Mission Peak, there are only a few sections of steepness, and it’s much easier.
For us, we hiked this on what forecasters said was a rainy day as we knew that would keep me from overheating. However, we got the best of both worlds as the rain totally missed us, and the clouds provided all the shade we needed.
I would say that the hike itself was pretty uneventful. We shared the trail with no one, the trail felt very familiar to us, and the expected rain never hit us. I wouldn’t recommend this hike on a sunny day as I would imagine it being too hot; however, in cooler weather, it’s a winner.
