Rancho Cañada Del Oro Open Space Preserve

Green trails

About a week back, we set out on a hike as a family. We had wanted to go someplace new and stay in the South Bay. My husband logged on to his computer and started looking up a few county parks and trails. He zeroed in on Rancho Cañada Del Oro Open Space Preserve, a place he had never been to before. That in itself was very rare, given that he’s lived in the bay area and has been an active hiker and biker for two decades. I had never been to this area before either, and we decided to try it out.

The drive took us through Almaden Valley, past the Calero Reservoir and the Santa Teresa county park into a street called Casa Loma Road off McKean Road. This is roughly at the boundary between San Jose and Morgan Hill and officially falls under Morgan Hill, CA. As we turned into Casa Loma Road, we saw the countryside becoming even more rural and a few farms with horses, cattle and sheep on the way. It was a very charming area to be driving in. We were a bit taken aback to come upon a sign proudly displaying “Team Trump” and “Re-elect Trump in 2020”. What was that doing in California, we thought? However, freedom of expression and all that I suppose. A bit perturbed but moving on, we arrived at our destination. The parking lot was full, and had an equestrian parking lot adjacent to it which happened to be empty. However, cars without trailers were not allowed to park here. We had to drive further on a mud road to the spillover parking lot and get ready for our hike there.

Meadows galore

My husband strapped on the hiking carrier and my son promptly ran off in the opposite direction, away from us. We decided to let him run around for a bit and get the wiggles out before he agreed to be strapped in to the carrier. Then we set off. We planned to do a test run with a 2 - 3 mile hike and see how our daughter handled it.

The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. There were maps at the trail entrance, however we did not need them since my husband had printed out and studied the trail at home. The area is supposedly beautiful in the spring when it is covered with wildflowers. We could picture this, since the landscape was covered in brilliant hues of green on that cold January day.

We first had to cross a little creek by stepping over rocks to get to the other side. This looked to be a bit of a challenge with a hiking carrier and an exuberant four year old in tow. We managed this rather easily though, to the utter delight of said four year old. We continued our hike and saw beautiful large oak trees, meadows and manzanita plants (characteristic shrubs or small trees with a smooth red bark and twisting branches). We saw a salamander making its way across the trail.

My daughter picked up a little branch and stated “If we ever see any pandas, I have some bamboo for them”. Then feeling very satisfied that she had any potential panda needs handled, she continued, “And, if we see another one, I’m going to look for another bamboo branch for him. No, for her. I’m going to call them all “her”. Everything is a girl, mama!”. This filled me with pride, because 1. My daughter loves nature 2. She loves animals 3. She is a natural feminist 4. What an active imagination! and finally 5. I love the way she expresses herself.

We continued on our hike until we reached a clearing at the 1.5 mile mark – time to turn around, because 3 miles was probably our limit. My husband was carrying our toddler in the carrier on his back, still getting used to the carrier and its weight distribution. My toddler was getting restless from sitting for so long. My daughter was showing signs of getting tired and ‘hangry'. I was anxious to complete the hike successfully, not to mention the fact that the backpack I was carrying was starting to feel uncomfortable on my shoulders.

So we stopped for a snack which I had packed and carried, and let our toddler dart off wildly in different directions as we followed frantically behind him run around and explore. Then we started the return hike back and managed to motivate my daughter to walk all the way back. When we reached close to the start of the trail, we were delighted to see a family of deer who were grazing in the nearby meadow. My daughter picked up a long twig and spent a long time splashing it in a puddle (it had rained recently), and just enjoying herself.

Beautiful oak tree

Nicely shaded trails

Manzanita plants

A family of deer

I forgot to mention that it was a particularly cold day so we had to bundle up through the hike. We managed to finish it though, and both kids crashed and fell asleep on the way home in the car. We drove to Chipotle and picked up food which we ate out in our driveway while the kids finished their naps in the car.

All in all, it was a refreshing new experience and a place we definitely want to be back to some day. Here’s a song that I love to listen to when I am in a contemplative mood that fits in well with our experience at Cañada Del Oro. 

Slomo by Slowdive

My love and I go

It's a curious woe

Like dreamers at dawn

Awake but not yet

You give me your heart

It's a curious thing

Give me your love

It's a curious love

Picturesque landscape