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Pierce Ranch and McAbee Road Entrance to Almaden Quicksilver by Ronald Horii
Almaden Quicksilver County Park has 3 staging areas and 2 neighborhood entrances. The McAbee Road entrance is one of the latter. There is no off-street parking there, but it is probably the busiest entrance to the park. It's because it's right in the middle of a densely-populated neighborhood. The streets near the entrance are often congested during peak park hours, causing parking headaches for residents next to the park. They've tried to have restricted parking zones setup by the park, but without success. Because of the parking situation, no park events or interpretive activities can be scheduled in this part of the park, even though it has the best wildflowers in the park. The McAbee entrance is not on County Park land. It's actually an easement along a private road, through private ranchland. That ranchland is now for sale. That presents opportunities to expand the park, but it's complicated. Here are some pictures of the area and the trails in this part of the park.
For pictures of the Pierce Ridge property, when it was open for touring, see: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1002031123153743.1073741978.100000405933924&type=1&l=e24d21da0d
Almaden Quicksilver County Park has 3 staging areas and 2 neighborhood entrances. The McAbee Road entrance is one of the latter. There is no off-street parking there, but it is probably the busiest entrance to the park. It's because it's right in the middle of a densely-populated neighborhood. The streets near the entrance are often congested during peak park hours, causing parking headaches for residents next to the park. They've tried to have restricted parking zones setup by the park, but without success. Because of the parking situation, no park events or interpretive activities can be scheduled in this part of the park, even though it has the best wildflowers in the park. The McAbee entrance is not on County Park land. It's actually an easement along a private road, through private ranchland. That ranchland is now for sale. That presents opportunities to expand the park, but it's complicated. Here are some pictures of the area and the trails in this part of the park.
For pictures of the Pierce Ridge property, when it was open for touring, see: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1002031123153743.1073741978.100000405933924&type=1&l=e24d21da0d
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Marv Tanner and 8 others like this.
Sharon Lum
Hopefully it'll stay as one of the park entrances as it is one of my favorites to go to on a weekday.
9 yrsReport
Ronald Horii
I'm sure it will stay as a park entrance if the county acquires the land. If someone else acquires it, that may complicate things. What's complicated is that there are two properties on sale at the same time by different sellers, with possibly different goals. The properties themselvs are very different. One is flat and partially developed with historic structures on it and next to a creek. The other is undeveloped hilly land. Each has its own challenges when it comes to developing it for park use. That may affect how much the County wants to spend to buy them.
Checkout the aerial videos of the larger property: https://
Checkout the aerial videos of the larger property: https://
9 yrsReport
