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"Hike Your Pie Off" at Little Uvas Creek Preserve, 11/25/22 by Ronald Horii
On 11/25/22, I helped with an open access event called "Hike Your Pie Off" at Little Uvas Open Space Preserve in Morgan Hill. It's owned by the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (OSA), purchased in September of 2014 for $1.4 million, with half the funds provided by the Santa Clara County Parks to eventually provide a trail connection to Uvas Canyon County Park. I first got to see the preserve on 10/28/14 during a docent preview, right after the OSA bought it. It was called the Melchor Ranch back then, after the previous owners: http://www.stpfriends.org/Melchor/MelchorRanch.html. I've been there many times since, sometimes leading private hikes: http://www.rhorii.com/#Melchor. The preserve covers 285 acres, and it's not regularly open to the public yet, but it's almost like a ready-made park. It has big flat fields by the entrance for parking and wide hard-packed service roads that go around 5 scenic spring-fed ponds. It backs up to densely forested hills that are part of the property. It has serpentine soil that supports native plant species, including some rare and endangered ones. The trails go around low, rolling hills, so the hiking is easy. It was open today for self-guided hiking by reservation only from 10 am to 2 pm. If private groups or individuals want to see the preserve, they can contact the OSA and request a docent-guided tour. I helped to lead one for the California Native Plant Society on April 16, 2022: https://tinyurl.com/36bkwd4s. To see upcoming OSA events, see: https://www.openspaceauthority.org/visitors/events.html. On that page, you can sign up for email notification of future events.
On 11/25/22, I helped with an open access event called "Hike Your Pie Off" at Little Uvas Open Space Preserve in Morgan Hill. It's owned by the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (OSA), purchased in September of 2014 for $1.4 million, with half the funds provided by the Santa Clara County Parks to eventually provide a trail connection to Uvas Canyon County Park. I first got to see the preserve on 10/28/14 during a docent preview, right after the OSA bought it. It was called the Melchor Ranch back then, after the previous owners: http://www.stpfriends.org/Melchor/MelchorRanch.html. I've been there many times since, sometimes leading private hikes: http://www.rhorii.com/#Melchor. The preserve covers 285 acres, and it's not regularly open to the public yet, but it's almost like a ready-made park. It has big flat fields by the entrance for parking and wide hard-packed service roads that go around 5 scenic spring-fed ponds. It backs up to densely forested hills that are part of the property. It has serpentine soil that supports native plant species, including some rare and endangered ones. The trails go around low, rolling hills, so the hiking is easy. It was open today for self-guided hiking by reservation only from 10 am to 2 pm. If private groups or individuals want to see the preserve, they can contact the OSA and request a docent-guided tour. I helped to lead one for the California Native Plant Society on April 16, 2022: https://tinyurl.com/36bkwd4s. To see upcoming OSA events, see: https://www.openspaceauthority.org/visitors/events.html. On that page, you can sign up for email notification of future events.
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