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Santa Teresa Park Wildflowers, Mine-Fortini-Stile Loop, 4/20/24 by Ronald Horii
On 4/20/24, I went on a solo hike on the Mine-Fortini-Stile Ranch Trail loop in Santa Teresa County Park in San Jose. I started at the Pueblo Day Use Area and took the Mine Trail to the Fortini Trail. I followed that to the Stile Ranch Trail, and returned on the Mine Trail. Except for starting in the Pueblo Area, it is essentially the same route as this hike by the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) in March: "CNPS Stile Ranch-Fortini Hike, Santa Teresa Park, 3/10/24":
https://tinyurl.com/3pr6jxt9. I was scouting the route for the "Mothers and Flowers" hike that I will be helping to lead on May 11: https://parks.sccgov.org/events/mothers-flowers-pre-mothers-day-hike. I will be pointing out wildflowers. Though the wildflowers are going to change by then, I thought I should document the trail route and the flowers that are here in mid-April. This is a travelog and wildflower survey for the route. When I hiked it, I took some pictures with my cellphone and posted some of them to Facebook in real time. This album includes those pictures, so they may be familiar if you saw my live posts. This is a favorite route for wildflower hikes because of the variety of native plants, some rare, that can be found along it. What makes it good for wildflowers is that it goes through serpentine grasslands, which supports lots of native plants, including some rare and endangered species (https://parks.sccgov.org/endemics-and-serpentine-specialists). This is the CNPS plant list for the Stile Ranch Trail: https://www.cnps-scv.org/images/plant-lists/StileRanchPlantList2022.pdf. I did a similar hike last year, so you can see the difference. This is what the Stile Ranch Trail looked like on 4/14/23: https://tinyurl.com/hy67nvn4. This is what the Mine and Fortini Trails looked like then: https://tinyurl.com/mxuxye9r. Here are more of my pictures of Santa Teresa County Park: http://www.rhorii.com/#santateresa. Here is information and a map of Santa Teresa County Park: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/SantaTeresa.aspx. Here's the webpage for the Friends of Santa Teresa Park, which is the volunteer group that supports the park and will be leading the 5/11/24 "Mothers and Flowers" hike: http://www.stpfriends.org/. We will be following the loop counter-clockwise, starting at the Stile Ranch/Fortini Trailhead on San Vicente Avenue off Fortini Road. We'll take the Fortini Trail to the Mine, and the Stile Ranch, which is a 2.4 mile loop. This is what the hike looked like last year: https://tinyurl.com/4ssnsamw. Note that parking in the Pueblo Area requires paying a parking fee. I started this hike in the Pueblo Area, but I have a parking pass. You can park for free in the tiny Bernal Road parking lot near the IBM entrance, but there are only 6 spots, and they fill up. Parking at the Stile Ranch/Fortini entrance is free. The Stile Ranch and connecting trails are part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail: https://ridgetrail.org/. Here's a map of this part of the Ridge Trail: https://ridgetrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2020_SantaClara_SantaTeresaandCaleroLosAlamitosCreeks.pdf. The Stile Ranch-Mine-Fortini Loop is one of the trails in the County Parks' "Hike the Hundred Challenge": https://parks.sccgov.org/HikeThe100.
On 4/20/24, I went on a solo hike on the Mine-Fortini-Stile Ranch Trail loop in Santa Teresa County Park in San Jose. I started at the Pueblo Day Use Area and took the Mine Trail to the Fortini Trail. I followed that to the Stile Ranch Trail, and returned on the Mine Trail. Except for starting in the Pueblo Area, it is essentially the same route as this hike by the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) in March: "CNPS Stile Ranch-Fortini Hike, Santa Teresa Park, 3/10/24":
https://tinyurl.com/3pr6jxt9. I was scouting the route for the "Mothers and Flowers" hike that I will be helping to lead on May 11: https://parks.sccgov.org/events/mothers-flowers-pre-mothers-day-hike. I will be pointing out wildflowers. Though the wildflowers are going to change by then, I thought I should document the trail route and the flowers that are here in mid-April. This is a travelog and wildflower survey for the route. When I hiked it, I took some pictures with my cellphone and posted some of them to Facebook in real time. This album includes those pictures, so they may be familiar if you saw my live posts. This is a favorite route for wildflower hikes because of the variety of native plants, some rare, that can be found along it. What makes it good for wildflowers is that it goes through serpentine grasslands, which supports lots of native plants, including some rare and endangered species (https://parks.sccgov.org/endemics-and-serpentine-specialists). This is the CNPS plant list for the Stile Ranch Trail: https://www.cnps-scv.org/images/plant-lists/StileRanchPlantList2022.pdf. I did a similar hike last year, so you can see the difference. This is what the Stile Ranch Trail looked like on 4/14/23: https://tinyurl.com/hy67nvn4. This is what the Mine and Fortini Trails looked like then: https://tinyurl.com/mxuxye9r. Here are more of my pictures of Santa Teresa County Park: http://www.rhorii.com/#santateresa. Here is information and a map of Santa Teresa County Park: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/SantaTeresa.aspx. Here's the webpage for the Friends of Santa Teresa Park, which is the volunteer group that supports the park and will be leading the 5/11/24 "Mothers and Flowers" hike: http://www.stpfriends.org/. We will be following the loop counter-clockwise, starting at the Stile Ranch/Fortini Trailhead on San Vicente Avenue off Fortini Road. We'll take the Fortini Trail to the Mine, and the Stile Ranch, which is a 2.4 mile loop. This is what the hike looked like last year: https://tinyurl.com/4ssnsamw. Note that parking in the Pueblo Area requires paying a parking fee. I started this hike in the Pueblo Area, but I have a parking pass. You can park for free in the tiny Bernal Road parking lot near the IBM entrance, but there are only 6 spots, and they fill up. Parking at the Stile Ranch/Fortini entrance is free. The Stile Ranch and connecting trails are part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail: https://ridgetrail.org/. Here's a map of this part of the Ridge Trail: https://ridgetrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2020_SantaClara_SantaTeresaandCaleroLosAlamitosCreeks.pdf. The Stile Ranch-Mine-Fortini Loop is one of the trails in the County Parks' "Hike the Hundred Challenge": https://parks.sccgov.org/HikeThe100.
