Guadalupe River Trail 2015-03-20

We wanted a change of pace, scenery, and setting for our next hike. Guadalupe River Trail in San Jose bubbled up in the selection. Running along Guadalupe River, the 11 mile paved trail runs through San Jose all the way to Alviso. We started our hike today at Guadalupe River Park and Gardens, at the intersection of Autumn St. and Coleman Ave. We parked at the large shopping complex, but there is street-side parking available a little ahead, by the trail on W Taylor St.

The first 1¼ mile was through Guadalupe River Park and Gardens, with an option to follow the trail that hugs the river or the ones that meander in the gardens. When we crossed the 880 underpass, the scene changed. The trail ran right next to SJC airport on one side and the river on the other. While the section in the gardens was shaded, the trail became fully exposed from this point on. For the next two miles, the trail runs right by the airport. You’ll get to see flights landing and taking off and cars zipping by to the airport to send off and pick up people.

You may even get to see a pair of wild geese crossing the Airport Blvd. and causing a traffic situation! I couldn’t believe it when I saw the geese walking across a fairly busy road. The situation was tense for few minutes before a Good Samaritan driving a van decided to stop, get out of his van and shoo the birds. The thankless birds decided to fly away, leaving me wondering why they chose to waddle across the road on their webbed feet in the first place!

When you reach the end of the airport infrastructures, the trail moves over to the other side of the river and continues up north. Getting across the Hwy 101 underpass will provide a change of scene from the ultra-urban setting by SJC airport. We continued past Trimble Road and decided to turn around after about 4½ miles from where we started.

I got an opportunity to click a couple of great shots of Apollo by the Trimble Underpass. My boy was ever so willing to pose for a photo!

The entire section we hiked was completed and opened to public only in April 2013. Sections of the trail still looked new! There were more people on their bikes using this trail than people on foot. This wasn't a surprise, as the well-paved, level blacktop road running 9 miles with no interruption should be very enjoyable for biking. This trail will also attract hikers (I daresay I can call walkers and joggers that) who crave an urban setting or are looking for a trail that runs by an airport!

Near Airport Blvd, there is a section where the trail runs on both sides of the river. On the way back, we used the eastern section. We noticed that San Jose is well prepared for pumping storm waters - all along the trail, there were plenty of warning signs about Guadalupe River flooding. Today, though, the river was looking anemic, with water flow reduced to a trickle at best.

The 9 mile out and back walk took us nearly 2 hours and 25 minutes to complete. My tracking software crashed midway, so you will find the other map that completes the one on the right in the photo album below.

More pictures from the hike.

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