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| Frog Lake |
Date: April 10, 2025
Place: Henry W. Coe State Park, Morgan Hill, California
Coordinates: 37.187372, -121.547012
Length: 5 miles
Level: moderate
A day after my China Hole grand loop hike I went back to Henry W. Coe State Park to scout yet another trail - the Frog Lake loop hike. I had two companions (different ones) for this hike, and they met me at the Coe Ranch headquarters, near the trailhead.
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| Our hike as captured by my GPS |
The trail to Frog Lake begins at the Monument Trailhead, a bit up Manzanita Point Road. The first part is a good uphill workout, not too steep but good in raising the heartbeat.
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| Monument Trail |
Soon we were high enough to have some really nice views, mainly to the southwest. I loved looking at the vast expanse of wilderness to the south, without any obvious signs of human activity.
A bit more west the view extended to the Salinas Valley and beyond. A thick blanket of fog covered the low areas so the urban regions were hidden from our eyes, giving us a complete sense of wilderness in that direction too.
Still on tghe ascend, fairly close to the beginning I came upon the first wildflower that caught my attention - it was Douglas's Monkeyflower, a species that I haven't seen before in Coe Park. All I saw was that one plant.
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| Douglas's Monkeyflower, Diplacus douglasii |
A bit further up the trail, under a small grove of trees I found a wildflower that I already seen on the day before - the beautiful ground iris. There were a few of the irises in the partial shade of that grove and that was the only spot on that hike that I've seen them.
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| Ground Iris, Iris macrosiphon |
A small group of violets also adorned the ground below the trees. These were the goosefoot violets - common plants but lovely to see.
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| Goosefoot Violet, Viola purpurea |
Even more common and yet I love seeing them every time were the milkmaids. These plants also prefer growing in the shade of trees.
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| Milkmaids, Cardamine californica |
I expected to see shooting stars and indeed I saw quite a few, but most of them were already done blooming and were setting seeds. Still, I found some shooting stars that were at their peak bloom.
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| Henderson's Shooting Star, Primula hendersonii |
My companions were fast walkers. We made it quickly to the junction with Hobbs Road - a wide dirt road, and we turned left (north) on it. There were trees all along Hobbs Road but it wasn't a dense forest. Plenty of sunlight was reaching the ground and the understory was rich with wildflowers.
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| Pacific Pea, Lathyrus vestitus |
At one point the trees opened up a bit and we were treated to the grand view of the highest mountain in the Bay Area: Mount Hamilton, easily identifiable by the white domes of the Lick Observatory on its summit.
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| Mount Hamilton |
Our first steps on Hobbs Road were almost level but soon the slope steepened and we started descending, going down to the creek below.
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| Hobbs Road |
The time of our hike to Frog Lake was the transition time between the first and second waves of spring bloom. The California buttercups, being part of the first wave was still blooming strong.
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| California Buttercup, Ranunculus californicus |
In some places there were carpets of these buttercups. I would say it was the most common wildflower I've seen on this hike.
The hound's tongue, also an early bloomer, was already on the decline. Most of the hound's tongue plants I saw were going to seeds already. I did see however, some that seemed to have just started blooming.
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| Pacific Hound's Tongue |
The sound of knocking grabbed my attention - an acorn woodpecker was doing some work on a tree by the trail. They are pretty noisy birds even when they don\t knock in wood. They have loud calls that sound like a rusty door hinge.
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| Acorn Woodpecker |
My companions were also interested in the wildflowers we saw on the hike. It was fun to talk with them about that. It's not all that often that I find people who share my love of plants.
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| Silver Bush Lupine, Lupinus albifrons |
I was impressed at how many wildflower species names my companions knew. That didn't stop me from pointing and naming each time we saw any, though.
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| Western Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum |
We kept going downhill on Hobbs Road. My companions didn't say anything about having to ascend it all back up but regardless, I reassured them that the trail back would be so mild-sloped that the uphill would hardly be noticeable. They were amused - both of them were quite adept with uphill hikes. They would have no problems with it.
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| Hobbs Trail |
A splash of red caught my eyes and I stopped and got of trail to see closer. There was a nice size patch of Indian warrior, in full bloom. Two years ago I went to Frog Lake on a solo hike. I hiked an 8-miles loop, most of which we were about to overlap today. That hike was in mid-march and the most prominent memory from it was the Indian warrior blossom, which was just about everywhere. Wide carpets of them. Tere weren't that many of them now but still plenty to dye the trail side with lovely red color.
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| Indian Warrior, Pedicularis densiflora |
In the bits of deeper shade that were on the few more vertical sides of the trail different wildflowers were blooming, including the shade-tolerant California saxifrage.
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| California Saxifrage, Micranthes californica |
My companions who were a bit ahead of me on that part of the trail, stopped and pointed at a 'woodpecker tree'. A dead tree full of holes drilled by acorn woodpeckers, many of which still held acorns inside them.
We reached Coyote Creek at the bottom of the trail. A month ago we may have had to take off our shoes and wade across. Now it was easy enough to hop on some strategically placed stones and branches. Our shoes remained dry.
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| Coyote Creek |
A turkey vulture flew gracefully across the brilliant blue sky. One of the tell tales of a turkey vulture is their shimmying flight, a consequence of their disproportionally wide wingspan. This characteristic flight makes it easy to identify the turkey vulture from other large raptors even when far away. This one fcourse, was super easy to identify by sight - if flew very close to us.
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| Turkey Vulture |
From Coyote Creek there is a short bit of uphill walk to get to Frog Lake. We continued up Hobbs Road because it leads to the lake via a small campsite with tables and a restroom hut. On the way up we passed a strange looking oak - it had these flat protrusions from its trunk, suggesting that in its saplinghood it was constricted by something that was later removed. I remembered this tree from my Frog Lake hike two years ago. It had a memorable shape.
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| Hobbs Trail |
We had a sneak preview of Frog Lake from a point just before the campsite. It was time for a snack break but we didn't make use of the table there but went right down to the lake.
The shrill calls of a red-winged blackbird male welcomed us to Frog Lake. The bird seemed to be the only one of its species there, though perhaps there was a female hidden somewhere. The females aren't as conspicuous as the males.
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| Red-winged Blackbird, male |
Across Frog Lake was a low-branched oak tree that, like its neighboring oaks was still budding out. What was different in this oak was that it also 'grew' a bunch of vultures. Walked along the small dam to the other side of the lake where we sat down to eat. During our break we kept watching the vultures flying in and out of this tree. I don't know why they fancied this particular tree over the others, but it was cute to see them forming, breaking, and reforming their sitting arrangements.
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| Vulture Tree |
From where we sat we also had a nice view of Frog Lake. We didn't see any waterfowl in the water, not even a coot. Perhaps the waterfowl were a bit leery of the vultures being so close. Although they are mostly scavengers, turkey vultures do occasionally come down on live prey. I've seen it once myself.
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| Frog Lake |
When I was done eating I went to the pond to look for frogs. I didn't see any adult frogs but I did notice fish like creatures. Being used to the small and black toad tadpoles I didn't realize that these were, in fact, tadpoles - the tadpoles of bullfrog. I figured that one after I've arrived home and inspected closely my photos.
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| Tadpoles of American Bullfrog |
Coming down from Frog Lake to the Coyote Creek crossing we walked a narrow foot path that was lined with trees and wildflowers.
The sunny patches along the trail featured a lot of manroot vines at the peak of their bloom. I love seeing manroot on my hikes, whether in bloom or when setting their spiny, ball-shaped fruit.
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| California Manroot, Marah fabacea |
A few blue dicks flowers also adorned the trail side. Until fairly
recently the blue dicks and the ookow where considered a single species.
Now they are split and I cannot, for the life of me, tell one from
another. In this case I trust the identification of the iNaturalist
app.
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| Blue Dicks, Dipterostemon capitatus |
Coyote Creek (the narrow part of the north fork) was below us. We had a nice view of the water but saw no large wildlife there.
Just before the crossing I had the opportunity to take some photos of a common fiddleneck that was beginning to bloom. Like poppies, these lovely wildflowers can paint entire slopes with orange, but this plant was part of a very small patch.
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| Common Fiddleneck, Amsinckia menziesii |
Across the creek we turned onto Frog Lake Trail, which also was a narrow foot path. This trail, I knew, would take us all the bay to Manzanita Point Road.
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| Frog Lake Trail |
Frog Lake Trail meanders along the contours of the hill. It was an uphill part of the hike but as I told my companions earlier, the slope was so mild it was hardly noticeable. What was very noticeable though, were the wildflowers that were blooming along the trail. Almost as soon as we started walking on it we saw the giant wakerobin trillium.
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| Giant Wakerobin, Trillium chloropetalum |
A pile of neatly arranged looking rocks was at one of the trail's numerous curves. The pile was natural of course, and without all the poison oak that grew between and on these rocks I might have been tempted to climb them.
It was a nice, warm day, and we welcomed the shaded segments of the trail. The trail kept curving between the south-facing or the west-facing sides of the hill so we didn't walk through too many truly shaded areas, but there were some.
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| Frog Lake Trail |
The forest was more dense in the shaded areas, and there I got to see some more of the Indian warrior blossoms, and they were at an earlier stage of their bloom, too.
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| Indian Warrior, Pedicularis densiflora |
Most of the trail was semi-shaded, with budding black oaks and the occasional gray pine growing closer together, but allowing more sunshine through their foliage and energize the understory plants.
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| Frog Lake Trail |
I paid attention to also the smaller wildflowers. These were often hard to see between the tall grasses, and I relied on what was blooming close to the trail.
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| Slender Phlox, Microsteris gracillis |
Occasionally we had some view points too. The view wasn't panoramic - just a peek between the trees that aligned along a gulch or a narrow valley. On the horizon were the high ridges some of which I was sure I hiked earlier on last March's backpacking trip with my friend.
Along the trail I saw a number of wildflowers that I would call blue dicks but that the iNaturalist app identified as ookow.
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| Ookow, Dichelostemma congestum |
And there was that entire grassy slope covered with miniature lupine, like little pieces of sky that came down to the earth.
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| Miniature Lupine, Lupinus bicolor |
Some plants I expected to see many of but found only a few here and there. The false babystars, of which I've seen plenty yesterday on my way to China Hole was mostly absent from today's hike.
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| False Babystars, Leptosiphon androsaceus |
The purple Chinese houses is a very common plant in the Bay Area, yet I saw very few of them on this hike (and none of yesterday's hike). Even this one wasn't really purple.
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| Purple Chinese Houses, Collinsia heterophylla |
What I did see were a number of really beautiful larkspur plants in full bloom. Larkspur aren't lways easy to identify but iNaturalist was pretty consistent with my Henry Coe larkspur photos.
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| Zigzag Larkspur, Delphinium patens |
Of all the wildflowers I saw on this hike I was most happy with the checker lilies. I saw a couple of them yesterday by Coyote Creek but along the Frog Lake Trail today I've seen quite a few of them. I am always amazed at how well camouflaged these fritillaries are. One can be right next to them and have a hard time seeing them.
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| Checker Lily, Fritillaria affinis |
Facing south once again just before we got a really nice, open view to the southwest. It was great to see the vast expanse of hills and forest that seemed to be completely wild.
Frog Lake Trail was the longest leg of this hike and I loved the variety of habitats it went through and the ease in which it ascended the height difference between Coyote Creek ad the Manzanita Point Ridge.
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| Frog Lake Trail |
The trail exited the woods just before meeting Manzanita Point Road. There, in the full sun and the tall grasses, were the mats of the California golden violets, same ones I saw on yesterday's hike.
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| California Golden Violet, Viola pedunculata |
We crossed Manzanita Point Road and continued on Corral Trail to the Coe Ranch gheadquarters, where we were parked.
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| Corral Trail |
Having hiked that bit f trail twice yesterday I didn't bother taking many photos. I did pause briefly where the clover was blooming - my photos of yesterday weren't all that good and I wanted a second chance. I can't say this time was a hole lot better, though.
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| Tomcat Clover, Trifolium willdenovii |
We finished this lovely 5 miles hike in just over three hours. My companions and I had a great time on this hike, but eventually I took my family hiking group on the Bass Pond loop trail which was shorter.
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| Zigzag Larkspur, Delphinium patens |
This spring was my Henry W. Coe spring. I don't think in any other year before I spent that much time there and I sure would like to hike there again before the year is out. It is wonderful to have such prime wilderness area so close to home.
