Saratoga Creek Trail 2016-02-02

Saratoga Creek Trail in West San Jose is quite close to my home that we have walked several times. The greenery from the recent rains and new trail markers encouraged me to blog it, even though this will be one of our shorter walks. The trail runs parallel to Saratoga Creek and Lawrence Expwy. Roadside parking is available at the end of English Dr (southern end of the trail) as well as Sterling Blvd & Barnhart Ave (northern end of the trail).

If you choose to do a simple out and back walk, this would be shy of a 3 mile hike. However, it is possible to make a decent 4+ mile walk by including Murdock and Saratoga Creek Parks in the hike. With an off-leash dog park available in Saratoga Creek park, this will give an opportunity for your dog to have a doggie social time too!

I started logging the walk at the intersection of English & Lyle drives on the southern end. The trail starts off as a nice gravel trail amidst a large tree covered spot by the creek.  With the reservoirs just about 41%, the creek did not have any water today, although after good rains, it does have flowing water. 

Murdock Park

About 1/2 a mile north, there is a wooden bridge on the left that would lead you to the trail entrance by Castle Glen Ave and Murdock park. Apollo and I made the side trip to Murdock park, a nice neighborhood park with the usual play areas and picnic spots. 

Returning back to the trail, I chose to go by the paved section on west of the creek. The gravel trail runs on the east side and they both join just ahead. The gravel trail makes way for a biker friendly black top trail from here. A sound wall dampening the road noise from Lawrence runs on the right most of the way.

The trail has a break at Bollinger Rd. Do exercise caution crossing this intersection at Lawrence Expwy - not all motorists exiting and entering Lawrence watch out for pedestrians. North of Bollinger, the goes about 1/2 a mile until Mitty Way before it ends. 

There are plans to connect the Saratoga Creek trail to San Tomas Aquino Creek trail in Santa Clara. We had hiked that one last May, which goes all the way until SF Bay trail. However, I would not hold my breath on this extension happening anytime soon. 

We retraced our steps back to Bollinger Rd. To throw some variety and add some distance to our walk, we crossed Lawrence and walked south by the pedestrian path (trail?) to Doyle Rd. From here, a short stretch by Forest Creek Dr got us to the entrance to Saratoga Creek park. 

More than 1/2 a mile long, this park is not very wide. At the southern end of this park is an off-leash dog area. The dog park is a decent sized one, covered with astro-turf that is popular with nearby residents and those willing to drive to it. As always, Apollo enjoyed his outing here, this time hanging around a Siberian Husky.

Saratoga Creek Park

We continued walking by the pedestrian path running parallel to Lawrence and crossed over at Prospect Rd. To complete the loop, we had to walk a short distance in Prospect Rd by a nice sidewalk in the service road and turned right on Lyle Dr opposite Prospect High School. 

Saratoga Creek trail may not be a destination place. But it is a nice 3 mile out & back trail that can be extended to make it more interesting. We ended up doing 4.4 miles in about an hour and a quarter.

More pictures from our hike.
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