Springtime Flowers
It’s springtime and flowers are coming out! To celebrate, we went hiking at Henry Coe last weekend. The park is at its most beautiful this time of year, with green hills and lots of flowers. The weather was cool (bordering on cold) and a little damp. There was dew on the grass & flowers and it lasted all day in the shade.
We went in from the main entrance and hiked to Frog Lake, along the Monument trail. I really like the top of the Monument trail. There’s a spot where the hill opens up and has some tall pine & oak trees. It was very quiet except for the wind blowing in the trees. From the top, the trail descends down to Frog Lake. Anywhere else, this would count as a steep descent, but compared to some of the other trails at Henry Coe, this one is only a moderate descent. We forgot about the park’s tendency for steep trails and didn’t bring our hiking poles; we’ll want to remember them next time.
Frog Lake is a little reservoir with a few dead trees sticking out of it. I think this was the smallest lake we’ve been to at the park (not counting the small water ponds that are so valuable in the summer). From here, we hiked up to Middle Ridge and headed east. This trail alternates between open oaks forest and cutting through thick brush . The Manzanita trees are truly impressive. Normally a small bush, the specimens here are full-blown trees.
After hiking along the ridge we took a right turn and crossed the creek to start climbing back to the park headquarters. By this point, our knees were definitely starting to feel all the climbing and descending we had done, and we were ready to be back at the car. To cap off this nice springtime hike, we had the most beautiful clouds over Gilroy on the drive home. The sunbeams shooting through the clouds were beautiful, and lasted for quite a long time.
