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Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve Public Hike, 3/20/16 by Ronald Horii
On 3/20/16, I accompanied a public hike at the newly-opened Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve on Malech Road near Bailey Avenue. The Santa Clara County Open Space Authority purchased 1,831 acres of land on Coyote Ridge that used to belong to United Technologies Corp. UTC had a huge rocket engine plant in the Shingle Valley east of the ridge, and used the ridgetop land as a buffer. Coyote Ridge is east of San Jose and the Coyote Valley. It contains serpentine soil and habitats for many rare and endangered species, like the Bay Checkerspot butterfly and the Santa Clara Valley dudleya. The combination of serpentine soil and managed cattle grazing produces spectacular displays of wildflowers. In the past, the OSA led guided hikes through the south part of Coyote Ridge on habitat mitigation land owned by the VTA, but managed by the OSA. Now that the OSA owns the north part of Coyote Ridge, they offer hikes on their own land. The property recently-opened, so it does not have developed trails or facilities for visitors. It can only be accessed through guided hikes like this one.
This is how Coyote Ridge looked like on 1/26/16, when I went on a docent's preview hike of the preserve before the wildflowers came out. It's quite a difference: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1040466365976885.1073741999.100000405933924&type=1&l=a130590d57
This is the first time I hiked Coyote Ridge in 2008. The hiked followed the Kirby Canyon Landfill service road. http://www.stpfriends.org/CoyoteRidge/CoyoteRidge.html
This is from last year, when the hike went through the VTA mitigation land:
http://www.stpfriends.org/CoyoteRidge_03-15-15/CoyoteRidge.html
On 3/20/16, I accompanied a public hike at the newly-opened Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve on Malech Road near Bailey Avenue. The Santa Clara County Open Space Authority purchased 1,831 acres of land on Coyote Ridge that used to belong to United Technologies Corp. UTC had a huge rocket engine plant in the Shingle Valley east of the ridge, and used the ridgetop land as a buffer. Coyote Ridge is east of San Jose and the Coyote Valley. It contains serpentine soil and habitats for many rare and endangered species, like the Bay Checkerspot butterfly and the Santa Clara Valley dudleya. The combination of serpentine soil and managed cattle grazing produces spectacular displays of wildflowers. In the past, the OSA led guided hikes through the south part of Coyote Ridge on habitat mitigation land owned by the VTA, but managed by the OSA. Now that the OSA owns the north part of Coyote Ridge, they offer hikes on their own land. The property recently-opened, so it does not have developed trails or facilities for visitors. It can only be accessed through guided hikes like this one.
This is how Coyote Ridge looked like on 1/26/16, when I went on a docent's preview hike of the preserve before the wildflowers came out. It's quite a difference: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1040466365976885.1073741999.100000405933924&type=1&l=a130590d57
This is the first time I hiked Coyote Ridge in 2008. The hiked followed the Kirby Canyon Landfill service road. http://www.stpfriends.org/CoyoteRidge/CoyoteRidge.html
This is from last year, when the hike went through the VTA mitigation land:
http://www.stpfriends.org/CoyoteRidge_03-15-15/CoyoteRidge.html
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