Henry Coe State Park May 28-29, 2005 [Back to Photo Page] [Back to Bay Area]

Henry Coe Park is the largest state park in northern California, with over 87,000 acres of wild open spaces. It is known for its variety and beauty of spring wildflowers in the park.

Getting there ...

It was a short drive from our home to Mogan Hill. After get off 101 and head toward east, the road crosses a bridge and follows alongside Anderson Reservoir, then it turns into a narrow, winding, scenic mountain road. We got to the park just passed 2PM, and we went around the headquarter campground a few times to choose a campsite for tonight.

• Monument Trail and Frog Lake Trail
  

  After setting up our tent at the campsite, we headed to the Monument trail. Before we left the campground, we saw a snake just beside the camp site #8. We felt lucky that we did not choose this site. This hike takes you to the top of Pine Ridge and to the monument Sada Coe put in place over 40 years ago as a memorial to her father, the park's namesake. The grass along the trail is so high that sometimes they are even taller than me. We kept going to the Frog Lake Trail after reaching the Monument, but we did not go too far since the road keeps going downhills and we decided to turn back before we were too exhausted (Woanyu was having allergy with flowers and my knees were hurting...).

• Camp site
  I bought a pack of fire woods at the visitor center, and started a fire when we were back to our camp. It's not very difficult to start a fire especially they include a few smaller pieces of woods in the bag. We decided not to use our own propane burner for our dinner (instant noodles + tea-bag eggs) tonight. After dinner, we had a good time in th tent playing Uno (we had one game which almost last forever...).

We were all invited to an evening program at the visitor center for a presentation of Coe's nature mysteries and some free hot chocolate. The program was interesting and quite informative.

The Second Day ...

• We woke up at about 7AM, and it was a cloudy morning with pretty cool air. We found our igloo was opened during the night and our prepared breakfast (mantoes and hams) was taken and eaten by raccoons. We started a fire (it's a little more difficult than yesterday since the woods were not as dry) and made us a few cups of hot drinks and some breakfast.

• Corral Trail and Forest Trail
  After packing up everything, It was already cleared and started to warm up. We started on the Corral trail, and we did not have any specific destination for today's hike. Corral trail is an easy trail with a lot of shade. It was a pleasant walk with many wildflowers decorated along the way.

Going Home ...

It was almost 1PM when we were back from hiking. We left the mountain and went to a McDonald's in Morgan Hill before got to 101. Both Linus and Iris were very excited with their first camping trip, and they both wanted to stay for one more day in the tent. It was a short trip for this Memorial day long weekend, but it was a start to our camping adventures.

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