Bay Nature

1608 acre Park managed by: Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Dept.

Visit this island of rolling hills and expansive views in spring, when the open slopes are lush green and dotted with native wildflowers.

Ten miles south of downtown San Jose sits Santa Teresa County Park. No other Santa Clara County park offers such vast undeveloped wildlands so close to so many homes, shopping centers, and high-tech businesses.

Yet if it weren’t for the expansive views that include thesurrounding Santa Clara and Almaden Valleys,Santa Teresa County Park would feel far distant from civilization. Its 18 milesof trails for hiking, bicycling, and horseback riding traverse expanses of grasslandas well as chaparral slopes and cross or follow a few streams and seasonalcreeks. In spring, the slopes, especially along the Stile Ranch and Rocky Ridgetrails, offer both long views and gorgeous wildflower displays in serpentinesoil.

The park also offers amenities for those who don’t want totravel its trails: a golf course, picnic tables and barbeques (including areservable group picnic area for up to 100 people), an archery range, and thehistoric Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch site, which is open for self-guided walks.