Loma Prieta Mountain and Uvas Canyon Santa Clara County Park: 26 May 2004
Photos by Neil Mishalov
UVAS CANYON SANTA CLARA COUNTY PARK is located on the eastern side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The park is 1,133 acres along upper Uvas Canyon, and is located 62 miles southwest from my home in Berkeley, California
I have been interested in climbing to the 3,791 foot summit of Loma Prieta Mountain for some time. However, since the mountain's summit is on private property, the route to the top is not well known and, to the best of my knowledge, the climb is not documented in any of the numerous San Francisco Bay Area hiking guides. So I did a Google search for a suggested route to the summit. Thanks to Google, I located Denesh Desai's excellent HIKING AND WALKING SITE His website documents hikes that he has done in and around the San Francisco Bay Area--and beyond. We followed his LOMA PRIETA ROUTE to the summit, and his directions and information proved to be of assistance during the hike.
Some hike factoids and statistics: Time on the trail: 8:55 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. Number of hikers: 2. Distance covered: 12.3 miles. Total ascent: 2,960 feet. Maximum elevation: 3,791 feet. Route: Uvas Canyon County Park => Knibbs Knob Trail => Mount Madonna Road => Loma Prieta Road => Summit Trail => Steep Dirt Trail => Mount Madonna Road => Knibbs Knob Trail => Uvas Canyon County Park
UVAS CANYON PARK TRAIL MAP (pdf format)
All Images and Text Copyright © by Neil Mishalov
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Topographic Route Map and Elevation Profile:
Data gathered with a Garmin GPS Map 60C
Topographic mapping program for Macintosh OSX by National Geographic
Click on an image to see the full size picture
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| Loma Prieta, at 3,791 feet, overlooks the entire area. This view is from Bailey Avenue in Morgan Hill | The entrance to Uvas Canyon Santa Clara County Park. We will start and finish our 12 mile hike in this park | We started our hike at 1,100 feet above sea level, and immediatly began to climb "Knibbs Knob Trail," which is quite steep. We gained 1,600 feet of elevation in 2 miles of hiking |
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| Up we go. The fog is burning off of the ridge tops' | Gene F. White cranking up Knibbs Knob Trail | A ridge top and fog |
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| Gene continues to climb | Near the top of Knibbs Knob Trail | A Ladybug foraging for breakfast |
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| Venus Thistle (Cirsium occidentale ver. venustum) | Venus Thistle | |
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| Our first good view of Loma Prieta (3,791 ft.). The summit is covered with microwave relay antennas | We finally reach the top of Knibbs Knob Trail at 2,700 ft. At this point we leave Uvas Canyon County Park and access Mount Madonna Road/Summit Road | Neil Mishalov at the western end of Uvas Canyon County Park |
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| The road is mainly hard packed dirt with very few homes along the way | There was a crew of men installing PVC conduit underground. Probably for telephone service | Cute |
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| We are approaching the final climb to the summit of Loma Prieta | Loma Prieta is used as a microwave relay station for local TV, California State offical relay points, cell telephones and who know what other type of signals are relayed from high on Loma Prieta | We took a hard packed dirt road to the summit, but we descended this steep and rutted dirt trail shown right-middle of the photo |
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| Dave Williams is a California State employee who lives in Corning, CA. He is a "tower jockey," and is pointing to the location (unseen in this photo) where he and fellow workers installed a new antenna for the California Highway Patrol | This antenna relay site is on the western portion of the summit | Radio relay antennas |
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| A view from the summit looking west northwest. UPDATE, 11 July 2004: Thanks to Kevin Mankin for clarifying and correcting the direction of the view of the above image | A view from the summit looking north northwest. San Jose is beneath the haze and smog. UPDATE, 11 July 2004: Thanks to Kevin Mankin for clarifying and correcting the direction of the view of the above image | A view from the summit looking east northeast. UPDATE, 11 July 2004: Thanks to Kevin Mankin for clarifying and correcting the direction of the view of the above image |
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| A view from the summit looking east | Gene and Neil scrambled down from the summit on this steep trail | |
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| Bermuda-buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae) | Neil Mishalov on Mount Madonna Road | |
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| Gene F. White holding the sign up | Heading back to Uvas Canyon | The descent of Knibbs Knob Trail |
To see an index page of additional digital photos Go Here
This page created on 27 May 2004, and all photographs copyright 2004, by Neil Mishalov neil@mishalov.com