If you yearn for a real getaway from city life, head to Henry Coe State Park. Although Coe is a substantial drive from some parts of the Bay Area, it offers superior day hikes as well as long multiday backpacking treks.
    Henry Coe is California's second largest state park, and with over 86,000 acres, there's plenty of room to roam. Part of the Coast Range, the park is mostly comprised of steep-sided ridges and creek-lined canyons, and sustains a variety of vegetation and terrific spring wildflower displays. With so many trails, the choices are a bit mind-boggling, and overzealous visitors often get in over their heads, hiking too far in hot weather while carrying insufficient water. I recommend the loop described below for first-timers. Hiking veterans can expand this trip to a 6.5-mile trek with significantly more elevation change by substituting the Fish Trail for Flat Frog, then looping to Hobbs Road via the Middle Ridge Trail.
    Begin from the park headquarters on the well-signed Corral Trail, which sets off at the edge of the parking lot, across from the visitor center. The narrow trail descends to cross a damp area on a wooden bridge, then begins a level journey on a ledge above a wooded gulch. On the morning of one hike, cobwebs strung through trailside vegetation glistened with dew like strands of sparking jewels. Buckeye, California bay, and live oaks shade the trail most of the way, but in a few pockets chaparral shrubs chamise, manzanita, and toyon bask on exposed hillsides. Like many of Coe's shaded paths, Corral Trail hosts good displays of fairy lanterns in spring. The trail finally leaves the woods for good and enters oak savanna, where on a June hike thick fog obscured the landscape, and massive valley oaks standing in grassland were reduced to ghostly figures looming in the distance. Up close, disturbed vegetation under the oaks is an obvious sign of the wild pig population inside the park -- pigs dig up the ground beneath oaks while rooting for acorns. At half a mile, you'll reach a signed three-prong junction. The trail to the right leads to Manzanita Point via Spring Trail, and the path straight ahead, to Manzanita Point Road. Veer left toward Flat Frog and Fish Trails.
    After a few feet, the path crosses Manzanita Point Road and reaches a junction with Flat Frog and Fish Trails. Bear left onto Flat Frog.
    After hiking less than 30 minutes, there is virtually no noise from the outside world -- except for occasional airplanes traveling overhead, bird songs, quails chirping unseen in the brush, squirrels scampering from tree to tree, and leaves whispering in the breeze make up the soundscape. Keeping an easy grade, this slight path follows a contour on the side of the hill with a ravine to the right, winding through a sparse woodland of pines, California bay, manzanita, and a variety of deciduous and evergreen oaks. By mid-June, flowers on fairy lanterns are gone, leaving dangling seed pods, while great washes of elegant clarkia stain the drying grass pink. Occasionally, the trail bisects little huddles of chaparral, as well as increasing amounts of poison oak and creambush, but overall the vegetation is dominated by trees, including some big-leaf maple and madrone. With displays of pink flowers, coyote mint is common in late spring. As the ravine begins to open out, there are views across the canyon to another ridge, and ceanothus, scrub oak, cercocarpus, and toyon make appearances. Thickets of snowberry crowd Flat Frog Trail, which bends left to follow a creek just before the trail ends at a multiple junction at 2.65 miles. Hobbs Road heads uphill both to the left and right, and Frog Lake Trail sets off for its namesake, sharply to the right. Turn left onto Hobbs Road.
    Ascending narrow Pine Ridge, a climb begins, moderate at first but then increasingly sharp. Along the fire road there's some California coffeeberry, pine, madrone, and oak above a grassy understory where you might see milkweed and pink-tinted clay mariposa lilies in early June. If you pause to look back downhill, Mount Hamilton's Lick Observatory dome is prominent in the distance to the north. In a little dip, Monument Trail departs to the right at 3.4 miles. Continue straight on Hobbs Road, which soon crests at the flat ridge top. Just as the fire road begins to descend, turn left across from a junction with Ponderosa Trail at 3.5 miles.
    A short path leads to the Henry Coe monument, a small headstone-like memorial with Coe's birth and death dates, as well as the following inscription: "May these quiet hills bring peace to the souls of those who are seeking." Coe and his family ranched this land until his death in 1943. Shortly thereafter the land was sold, but Coe's daughter Sada repurchased the property, then donated the 12,230-acre parcel to Santa Clara County in 1953. Turn back to the fire road, then cross it onto Ponderosa Trail.
    This slight path can be hard to follow when the grass is tall, but the obscure section is short. Ponderosa winds slightly uphill through blue oaks and pine, then descends to a junction with the Monument Trail at 3.65 miles. Continue straight, following the sign to the vista point.
    The path rises gently, then levels out in a broad, grassy plateau, topped with a few big, mature ponderosa pine, blue oak, and young madrone. In June, elegant brodaeia and yellow mariposa lily bloom through the pure stands of thigh-high grass. Off in the distance to the left (west), lower Santa Clara Valley is visible. At 3.85 miles the paths split around Eric's Bench (the paths eventually rejoin at the park boundary). This is a fantastic resting place for lunch or a water break. If you proceed a bit farther down the left fork, you'll come to an graceful blue oak, standing alone in the grass. When you're ready, return to the junction with Monument Trail, and turn right.
    Descending steadily, the small footpath sweeps through grassland, then switchbacks through a pocket of California bay and ends at 4.35 miles. Turn right onto Manzanita Point Road, where a gate stretches across the fire road and dirt turns to pavement near a house.
    Manzanita Point Road descends gently toward park headquarters, then ends at 4.45 miles. Veer left onto the park road, and walk the remaining 100 feet back to the parking area.

Total distance: 4.5 miles
Last hiked: June 19, 2003