 |
| Kelly Lake |
Date: March 14, 2025
Place: Henry Coe State Park
Coordinates: 37.076032, -121.466499
Length: 7.2 miles
Level: strenuous
Last summer was the first summer in a while in which I haven't gone on any backpacking trip. On the most recent trips I've had, to Panamint City in December of 2023 and Marble Mountain in August of 2023, my hip had bothered me a great deal, and slowed me down considerably. By the summer of 2024 my hip condition had deteriorated so much that another backpacking trip was out of the question. Last August I had a hip replacement surgery and my recovery was good, and right on schedule. By the beginning of 2025 I decided it was time to "test drive" my new hip going backpacking again.
I asked my good friend with whom I've backpacked Snow Mountain and Marble Mountain to join and she gladly agreed.
We decided on the time and after looking at the best options for a March trip that didn't necessitate long driving, we agreed to backpack at Henry Coe State Park. This would be my second time backpacking at Henry Coe, and a third time for my friend. This time however, we planned to go to the central part of this huge park, which was an area neither of us had hiked at before.
 |
| Coyote Creek |
We followed the suggestion given us by a park ranger on the phone and
dropped our backpacks at the Coyote Park Entrance, then drove back two
miles to the Hunting Hollow Entrance where we parked the car and
registered and paid for the trip. Then we started down the road to Coyote entrance again, this time on foot.
 |
| Gilroy Hot Springs Road |
It was raining when we drove in but by the time we started walking the rain paused. The air was damp still, but very fresh and clean. The creek was swollen and all the vegetation was green and lush and looked very happy. And there were wildflowers too!
 |
| Buckbrusk, Ceanothus cuneatus |
Excited, I started describing the wildflowers I expected seeing to my friend. I had my expectation based on previous early spring hikes in Henry Coe State Park. I was really looking forward to this trip.
 |
| Arroyo Lupine, Lupinus succulentus |
We were on the road still when I saw a buttercup, the first of many we would see on each day this trip. There were no other human beings on the road, which wasn't very surprising, considering the rainy forecast for that day.
Walking along the road was easy, and without our backpacks we were also quick. In a short time we reached the Coyote entrance again, passed the gate and found our backpacks undisturbed. We also found a joyful group of juncos that used the break in the rain to forage on the trail. They did fly into the vegetation as we approached.
 |
| Dark-eyed Junco |
It was my friend who planned our hiking route for us, and she had planned to hike up Coit Road which although longer, had a milder slope. A short distance into the trail we found that to continue following that trail we would have to ford Coyote Creek. The recent rain had fed the creek and it was too high to cross without either wetting our shoes or take them off and go barefoot or in sandals.
 |
| Coyote Creek |
We spent a minute looking upstream to see if we could cross there, but couldn't find a better spot. Neither of us felt like going through the hustle of fording the creek, so after a short discussion we backtracked to the Grizzly Gulch trail junction and started going up that trail, hoping to not have to cross high creeks on the way.
 |
| Grizzly Gulch Trail |
I was very pleased seeing a trillium blooming along the trail. I expected to see many more of them, but it was the only trillium we saw on the entire trip.
 |
| Narrowpetal Wakerobin, Trillium angustipetalum |
For a while we walked uphill without any issue. The trail was much less muddy than I expected. The soil was wet, but without the thick, clayish mud that would have made the hike much more difficult. Even the slope which was steeper than the route we gave up on, wasn't too bad. Then we came upon a high creek again - one of the larger forks of Coyote Creek. This one too would have forced us to take our shoes off, but fortunately there was a bridge there. At the base of the bridge I found a couple of nice looking bolete mushrooms. I'm pretty sure they were good to eat but not sure enough to collect them, so I left them where they were.
 |
| Bolete Mushrooms |
Past the bridge the trail got steeper for a little bit. We paused before curving around the hill and looked below at the flowing creek. I think it was the first backpacking trip in which I was carrying less than a liter of drinking water any time, because there was water everywhere - in the creeks, in ponds, and also runoff water along the trail. Water was not a limiting factor any time that day and for most of our trip.
 |
| Creek |
The trail up to the creek crossing was mostly in a forested area of oak and laurel. Now we were more in the open, and we started seeing more wildflowers along the trail, and of different species.
 |
| Foothill Desert Parsley, Lomatium utriculatum |
The trail slope eased up a bit. We were now walking through a more open oak forest. Not quite an oak savanna but something in between. Water was running down the trail, eroding little ruts in it. The clouds got thicker and darker - it looked like the rain was about to resume.
 |
| Grizzly Gulch Trail |
Here and there between the oaks I spotted a buckeye tree. The buckeyes were well out of their hibernation, sporting lovely fresh green foliage. I also noticed a small buckeye sapling with leaves that lookled a bit bleached. I hope it gets healthier as it grows.
 |
| California Buckeye, Aesculus californica |
We came upon a creek crossing again. This one however, was narrow enough, so we had no problem jumping across. My friend told my about a trip she took with her spouse where they got caught behind a flood and had to circumvent it on a much longer route. I was glad we weren't facing a similar situation here.
 |
| Creek |
The wetness had its blissful effect all around us, including on the fungi, which were numerous. One of the rotting logs sported a particularly colorful arrangement of turkeytail and witch's butter fungi.
 |
| Turkeytail and Witch's Butter Fungi |
In the open areas bloomed many baby blue eyes flowers. This early spring flower we saw a lot on this trip also. They dotted the grass like little earth-bound stars.
 |
| Meadow Baby Blue Eyes, Nemophila |
As
the date of our trip approached we saw that it was going to be a cold
weekend, and that it'll rain on our first day there. We didn't cancel
our plan - neither of us had a better time to push the trip back to, but
we had to add more gear - extra layers of clothing, and rain gear, all
of which added to our backpacks' weight. When it begun dripping again we promptly put it to use. My outer layer was a plastic rain poncho that was large enough to cover both myself with the backpack, but most importantly, my camera.
 |
| Oak Forest |
The wind picked up and rain came down thin and sharp. Accumulating on the plants, the water formed large drops that looked like jewels on the grass and the flowers.
 |
| Miniature Lupine, Lupinus bicolor |
The rain eased up a bit, and I ventured my camera out of the poncho more frequently, especially when I saw more wildflowers.
 |
| California Golden Violet, Viola pedunculata |
The trail went fairly straight uphill, switching between steeper and milder slopes. Every now and then we came upon trail construction work. Eventually we figured out that the park authorities were constructing a new trail to replace the one we were ascending on. The new trail would be longer, designed with switchbacks to make the slope easier. The new trail looked pretty far along, but it was not open yet.
 |
| Grizzly Gulch Trail |
In the winter of 2022 I went with two other friends on a day hike in this part of the park. When we reached the Rock Tower trail junction we decided to turn on it and round our way back through Jackson Road and Coit Road. This time we were aiming to get much further inside the park, so we kept on going on Grizzly Gulch Trail, that is more uphill.
We were much higher now, and whenever we were in the open the wind was whipping mercilessly at us. It was good that every now and then the trail entered more protected areas of forest and rocks, where we would have a temporary relief from the wind.
Eventually the rain eased up to a light drizzle, and later also paused. The trail remained very wet and flowing like a brook at times. We had walked for a couple of hours now and wanted to have break. Everywhere was very wet though, and the wind was strong. We continued walking until we'd found a more comfortable place to sit.
Eventually we found a place to sit for a short break and have a snack. We managed to have a quick bite before the rain resumed and we got up to go again.
 |
| Grizzly Gulch Trail |
Soon after we encountered our first wildlife on this trip that wasn't a bird - a caterpillar that was hanging on to a blade of grass. The grass was swaying wildly in the wind but the caterpillar was holding on tight.
The rain was coming down harder now. I had difficulty keeping my poncho from whipping in the wind and twisting all around me. I had to tuck its edges behind the straps of my backpack. My friend said that the forecast showed a clear day on the morrow, and I was hoping it would be so. I find that hiking in the rain is generally ok, that is was the wind that made it unpleasant.
On the brief moments I pulled my camera out from under my poncho I was able to capture the view of the rain and the heavy droplets in the air.
Once again we came upon a creek crossing. It was the first time on the way that I had to fill up my untreated water bottle. Now I wanted a place to sit and filter, but we would find a suitable spot to sit only further up the trail.
Despite the weather conditions I felt happy. We were on a long uphill trail and my new hip joint was doing great. I wasn't feeling any pain or discomfort there. I was glad to be out in nature again, and there were lots of wildflowers along the trail.
 |
| Pacific Hound's Tongue, Adelinia grandis |
Out in the open I saw an oak tree which was still winter-bare and reminded me of the whomping willow from the Harry Potter book series. When I worked through my photos at home I thought that this image would look better in black and white.
For the most part the mountain slopes were round and soft-looking. Every now and then though, we'd come upon large, rugged rocks that protruded from the soil like massive monuments.
We reached the trail junction where we would leave the Grizzly Gulch Trail and turn onto Dexter Trail, going toward Kelly Lake where we had planned to camp. We were looking at more uphill still. We haven't had much rest so far and we were both pretty hungry. The wind was strong still but the rain stopped. We looked up to a place that looked like a reasonable spot to sit at, and decided to have our lunch break there.
Meanwhile I pointed out some miner's lettuce to my friend and suggested having salad for lunch. As it was, there was no miner's lettuce growing in the place where we did stop, but we did enjoy some wild salad on the following day.
 |
| Miner's Lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata |
We reached the place that we saw from below where we noticed a fallen log. The log however, was unsuitable for sitting, and reaching it would have necessitated going through thorns and some poison oak. We gave up on finding a better spot and sat down on some exposed rocks in the middle of the trail. There was no one else around, we weren't in anyone's path.
For a brief moment the sun broke through the cloud cover and we were treated to a gorgeous view in a soft afternoon illumination. We enjoyed some food and I filtered the water I collected earlier. The wind however, was gusty still.
There were more wildflowers nearby too - low shrubs of silvery lupine, blooming in lovely blue, The lupines were still developing their blossoms, they would peak in April.
 |
| Silver Lupine, Lupinus albifrons ssp. collinus |
The sun disappeared again behind the clouds and quickly after the day turned gray again the rain begun once more. We packed our food and hoisted our packs to go. I had to have my friend's help in adjusting the poncho again - the wind kept flapping the plastic put of my grasp.
 |
| Dexter Trail |
Most of the oaks at the bottom of the mountain where we has started our hike were the evergreen live oaks. Higher up the mountain where we now were, the oaks were deciduous, and appeared in hibernation still. When I looked closely though I saw that they had begun budding already, but they weren't far along yet.
 |
| Dexter Trail |
Eventually we reached Wasno Road, on which we walked only a little bit before turning onto Kelly Lake Trail. My friend announced happily that we were done wit the uphill park of today's hike.
 |
| Wasno Road |
By the time we reached the Kelly Lake Trail junction the rain had stopped. We paused by the trail sign and looked down into a deep, forested valley. We couldn't see the lake itself yet.
As soon as we started down Kelly Lake Trail we were treated to the beautiful blossom of the paintbrush. I thought it was a bit early for them and indeed, it was the only paintbrush we saw blooming on this trip.
 |
| Coast Paintbrush, Castilleja affinis |
It was all downhill from the junction. Thankfully, the trail wasn't too steep because on the downhill parts I did start feeling my hip. It wasn't painful though, just a slight feeling that something was a bit off.
My friend was on the lead when she suddenly stopped and pointed down - a newt was crossing the trail. I was surprised at how fast it was walking - they aren't very fast creatures. I guess the newt also wanted to get out of the wind.
 |
| California Newt |
Hungry and ready to finish walking we went quickly down the trail. In short time the lake came into view down below us.
 |
| Kelly Lake |
I scanned the lake surface for waterfowl and found only a pair of mallards. We were quite far away still, but the mallards appeared to have sensed our presence and took of to the middle of the lake.
 |
| Mallard |
When we were close enough to the lake we stopped and my friend pulled out of her pocket the information she had printed out before our trip. She read aloud the possibilities for campsite that we were supposed to choose from around the lake. The most favorable one was across the lake from us, near the solitary oak tree. I raised a concern that it might be too exposed to the wind there, but seeing the other options were not as conveniently located I agreed with her that we should camp in that spot.
 |
| Kelly Lake |
Getting to our campsite choice wasn't as simple as we thought though. After crossing the dam to the other side we found that the trail was flooded by the lake's spillway water. Once again we faced the dilemma - shall we take off our shoes and ford the creek or find another place to camp? Meanwhile the weather had improved greatly - the wind calmed down and the sun came out. Other than our hunger, we were in no rush and had the time to look around a bit.
The park's authorities had conveniently placed an outhouse near Kelly Lake. The outhouse too was across the creek. My friend left her backpack at the edge of the dam and went to see if there was a place where she could cross the creek. When I heard her calling back to me that is was possible to cross there left my backpack to and followed in her steps.
While my friend was busy I went around the creek and found the extension of the trail that we saw above the campsite. I verified that there were no other obstacles on the way there, then I went back down to wait by the backpacks. On the way I stopped by a beautiful ceanothus that was blooming near theh trail, and inhaled deeply its lovely fragrance.
 |
| Buckbrush, Ceanothus cuneatus |
When my friend returned we picked up our backpacks for the last time that day, and carefully crossed the creek. I then turned around and took a photo of the pretty cascade that spilled out of the lake.
Then the weather shifted again. By the time we reached our chosen campsite the wind picked up and the clouds gathered, obscuring the sun once more. As hungry as we were, setting up the tent was the priority.
After the tent was up we filled water from a nearby creek and sat down to cook and eat dinner. All of that didn't take very long but the last bites of our dinner we ate in the chill of the whipping wind. The rain didn't start again though, and the clouds dispersed again.
 |
| Kelly Lake |
The rules of the park prohibited us from lighting a campfire. I think I wouldn't have wanted to have a fire on in that wind anyway. Having no campfire however, meant that shortly after sunset it became too cold and dark to sit outside. We finished organizing our little campsite and went inside the tent, where we passed another hour or so chatting before going to sleep. In a perfect timing, the rain had resumed.
