Joseph D Grant County Park 2015-12-17

Our third visit to the spacious and tranquil Joseph D Grant County Park. I had parked at the Grant Lake staging area, the same place where I had on our first visit. We had covered the northeastern side of the park in our first visit, southern side in our second. Today, we focused on the western side of the park.

Apollo was sporting a red scarf today as we started our hike walking by Yerba Buena trail. In a short distance, we crossed Mt. Hamilton Road and connected to Hotel trail. Another short stint in this trail, we turned west into an access road, crossed the main parking lot and made our way to the Dutch Flat trail head.

Dutch Flat trail

It was cold when we started hiking today, the ground wet from the recent rains with a thick frost covering the Dutch Flat trail. A wide dirt trail, we walked more than half a mile by this trail before coming out of the shade into sunlight and some warmth. Walking up the gentle slope, in about half a mile, we came to the intersection with Dairy trail. 

Dairy trail

We continued by Dairy trail walking south for about a mile. Also a wide dirt trail, Dairy trail was essentially flat or sloping down slightly. At the next intersection with Brush trail, we took the longer section heading towards Dutch Flat trail.

Brush trail (Mt. Hamilton)

Brush trail has great views of Mt. Hamilton, Lick Observatory and the Diablo mountain range on the left. We were on this section for more than a mile. Brush trail opens up to a beautiful open grass valley with mountains surrounding it. While the temperature was in high 40s, it was warmer than when we started and the bright sunshine made this stretch thoroughly enjoyable.

Brush trail

In the distance, probably 1/4 mile from where we were walking, I saw a family of coyotes walking across the open space. By the time we reached, they were long gone. We continued by Brush trail towards Eagle trail, bearing left in a northerly direction.

Corral trail

We stayed on Eagle trail for a very short distance before turning right into Corral trail and heading east to Corral circle & Hotel trail intersection. Walking east with the sun behind us provided great views of the Diablo mountain range in the front. 

Hotel trail

We turned left into Hotel trail. This was an interesting stretch, walking through a stretch where cows were grazing. At multiple points in Hotel trail, there were cows standing or sitting on the trail, barely budging as we walked right by them. Apollo had to be on a tight leash away from the cows, especially if there were young calves around them. 

Hotel trail

Hotel trail offered great views of wide open spaces directly ahead and the mountains on the right. We could've walked straight all the way to the spot where we took the access road into the parking lot. Instead, I turned right by Bass Lake trail, a slightly longer and uphill route.

Bass Lake

We came to the shores of Bass lake, but not before passing through another large group of cows and calves. Thankfully, they moved away from the trail as we approached them making it easier to go by the alert group. 

Yerba Buena trail

We took the short loop trail around Bass lake to Mt. Hamilton Rd. Crossing the road, we turned left by Yerba Buena trail and walked the last mile to the Grant Lake staging area. 

Joseph Grant park is remote, not busy and quiet. There is barely any road noise and it is very much possible to spend lots of time hiking listening to just your foot steps and the sounds of the birds. Our 7.8 mile hike today involved two uphill sections, adding up to about 900 feet of elevation gain.

More pictures from our hike.
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