Hiking: Santa Clara County : Heavenly Hills of Henry W. Coe State Park

Henry W. Coe State Park, perched high above the Santa Clara Valley, preserves a cross section of the classic California Coast Range: mellow, rolling hills dotted with antiquarian oaks and strewn with wildflowers.

The Diablo Range, which stretches from the Carquinez Strait to the Antelope Valley, is bordered by the San Joaquin Valley on the east and, in part, by the Santa Clara Valley on the west. Geologists say it has undergone a tumultuous history of uplift, folding and faulting.

The state park welcomes visitors with its diverse ecology: grasslands, mconifer forests and oak woodlands. The park features some unusual flora, including magnificent manzanita that grow more than 15 feet high on Middle Ridge and well-named Manzanita Point.

Despite the area’s long pre-park use as grazing land, assorted native grasses--including purple needle grass and Western rye--survive. Though some of the landscape may appear devilish, it is a heavenly place for hikers.

Henry Willard Coe Jr. pioneered hereabouts in 1880, and over the years increased his holdings. His daughter, Sada Coe Robinson, gave 12,230 acres of the family ranch for a park in 1953. Subsequent additions have increased the park to more than 68,000 acres.

Henry W. Coe is now one of California’s largest state parks. About one-third of the park is classified as wilderness, where few structures remain.

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Stop at the park visitor center, located next to an old ranch house, and view the natural and cultural history exhibits. Pick up a map and inquire about trail conditions here.

Most of the park’s trails are old ranch roads open to hikers, cyclists and equestrians. The park has a somewhat astonishing 100-plus miles of trails. Day hikers who depart from the visitor center can fashion a trip from more than 40 miles of trail that emanate from the headquarters area through the original nucleus of the park.

The park visitor center, at about 2,600 feet in elevation, is in one of the highest parts of the park. In other words, most trails lead downhill; your return trip will be an uphill climb.

The park serves all trail users: Half a dozen mountain-bike routes have been established, horse camps have been set up in the back country, and there are hikers’ trail camps, too.

Some of the dirt roads designated as mountain-bike routes have nearby footpath alternatives for hikers. Backpackers will enjoy touring the northern boundary of the park on the Northern Heights Route, then setting off into the park’s Orestimba wilderness area.

Two shorter, favorite hikes from Manzanita Point are the five-mile loop to Poverty Flat, with a stop at the China Hole swimming hole, and the six-mile loop to Mahoney Meadows.

I have two other favorite loops through the main part of the park. One is a six-mile jaunt around Frog Lake to Middle Ridge, with a return on Fish Trail. A longer 9 1/2-mile loop takes off from the junction with Fish Trail and continues 2 1/2 miles to Poverty Flat and to oak- and sycamore-shaded trail camps ideal for a midday picnic/rest stop.

Directions to trail head: From U.S. 101 in Morgan Hill (south of San Jose, north of Gilroy), exit on East Dunne Avenue. Drive 13 miles east on the narrow, winding road to the park visitor center and hiker parking lot.

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The hike: From the visitor center, walk 100 yards back up the park entrance road and join the gated dirt road (called Pacheco Route) on your right. At the first bend in the road, you’ll join signed Monument Trail, a footpath.

Monument Trail ascends fairly steeply over oak-dotted grasslands and soon reaches a signed junction. At this point, one may take a short spur trail to the west for a great view of the Santa Clara Valley before returning to the main trail. This leads a few hundred yards east to a monument for park namesake Henry W. Coe.

Here you are on the crest of Pine Ridge. Ponderosa pine--unusual in the Diablo Range--give the ridge its name.

Your path joins a major dirt road, the Northern Heights Route, and begins a descent down the back side of Pine Ridge into a black-oak forest. The road crosses the Little Fork of Coyote Creek. A side trail on your right leads to Frog Lake; there’s fine picnicking on the shores of this little green reservoir.

Continue up the road to Middle Ridge (longer, but with more scenic vistas) or join the steeper-but-shorter footpath for the climb to the ridge top. Here you meet Middle Ridge Trail, which first descends, then ascends, before entering a stand of truly Gargantuan manzanita. A few pine trees grow up through the manzanita--a weird sight indeed.

At the signed junction with Fish Trail, those ambitious hikers following the longer loop will continue descending on Middle Ridge Trail, cross the Middle Fork of Coyote Creek twice to the Pacheco Route dirt road, and follow the road a short distance down to the Poverty Flat trail camps. Your return to the trail head will be via the Pacheco Route, the madrone- and laurel-shaded Forest Trail and the Corral Trail.

Hikers on the shorter loop will descend through the woods to recross the Little Fork of Coyote Creek, then head across an inspiring, oak-studded meadow. The trail meets, then crosses, the Pacheco Route. You link up very briefly with Springs Trail, then join Corral Trail for a westward walk over a buckwheat-covered slope and through an oak woodland back to the trail head.

Monument, Middle Ridge, Fish Trails

WHERE: Henry W. Coe State Park DISTANCE: 6-and 9-mile loops. TERRAIN: Steep canyons, oak savannahs, pine-topped ridges. HIGHLIGHTS: Diverse ecology in one of California’s largest state parks. DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Moderate. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Henry W. Coe State Park, P.O. Box 846, Morgan Hill, Calif. 95038, (408) 779-2728.