Villa Montalvo County Park 2015-08-11

Situated behind the prestigious Montalvo Art Center and Villa Montalvo, this Santa Clara County Park is a hidden gem. Located at 15400 Montalvo Rd, the park can be accessed by taking Montalvo Rd off Hwy 9 (Los Gatos - Saratoga Rd) in the city of Saratoga. Hikers are required to use Parking Lot #4, which is large and can easily accommodate some ~25 cars.

Apollo and I started off hiking the Lookout Trail from the parking lot. We kept left at the first few intersections to stay on the Lookout Trail and reach Lookout Point a little more than three-fourths of a mile from the trail head. The single-track dirt trail steadily winds up the hills and soon enters a dense redwood forest. The nearly 500-foot climb takes you to Lookout Point, which offers panoramic views of the hills and valley, the city of Saratoga, and the Bay Area.

The park has several short, named trails. On the way down from Lookout Point, we kept left on Lookout Trail to reach the Orchard Trail loop. The North and South Orchard Trails offer a shaded walk through redwood, oak and pine trees with several interesting quotes interspersed along the trails. 

After doing portions of the Orchard Trail loop, we spent some more time hiking the Creek Trail and Redwood Trail forming a nice long loop that ends in Lookout Trail. Along the way, we also got to see an interesting piece of art, called the Nest, by Steven Siegel in 2005. The Nest is essentially made of newspapers containing news items following Hurricane Katrina, with much of the paper coming from the local San Jose Mercury News.

As always, Apollo had a field day posing with a bust of John Muir, sitting on a chair and a tree that had fallen on the trail. 

The 3.2 mile hike involved climbing nearly 800+ feet. Much of the hike is completely shaded and a perfect spot for a summer outing. 

More pictures from our hike today.
#Hiking #HikingWithDogs #VillaMontalvoCountyPark 














Update 2015-08-13

I kicked off my birthday with a hike again at Villa Montalvo, this time with my daughter Sanjana and my faithful Apollo. We made our way to Lookout Point, from where the view was brighter on what was a much clearer beginning to the day. 

We continued to the west side of the park, taking Lookout Trail. As I mentioned earlier, there are lot of short, named trails in this park. I focused today on portions of N Orchard Trail and Redwood Trail that I didn't do earlier. And we wrapped up the hike by joining Lookout Trail and making our way back to the trail head at parking lot 4.

We covered exactly 3 miles today, but at a much brisker pace. Not having to slow down to take photographs and document the hike in detail certainly helped to speed up the hike at this beautiful location. 

#Hiking #HikingWithDogs #VillaMontalvoCountyPark #LookoutPoint