Attractions and Places To See in Henry Coe State Park - Top 19

The Henry Coe State Park was donated to the Santa Clara County in 1953 by the daughter of the ranch owner. It's the largest state park in northern California. This Trail Head is a useful place top start a bike tour of the gravel roads in the back country.

Originally named Pine Ridge Ranch by Henry Willard Coe, Jr., this historic cattle ranch once comprised over 12,000 acres. We can all thank Henry's daughter, Sada Sutcliffe Coe, for repurchasing the ranch and donating it for public use to Santa Clara County in 1953, after her brother had sold it to a private company in 1948.

Flat Frog Trail is a smooth, intermediate singletrack that makes a lot of fun. This trail is also a good warm up for Middle Ridge Trail.

Middle Ridge Trail is a fantastic singletrack through woods and fields. You will ride along some exposed sections that will cause an extra dose of adrenaline. Middle Ridge Trail can be combined with Fat Frog Trail to a great singletrack adventure.

Creekside Trail starts out with a very short segment that's flat and easy. You'll notice things starting to deteriorate quickly after this though, and the trail will disappear into the rocky creek bed before you know it. From here to China Hole, you'll be on Creekside Trail, which follows the creek bed. The continuity of the trail is only nominal, though. In practice, what you'll find is a brief chain of short goat paths that bypass certain spots of the creek bed only a few feet higher up on the right-hand hillside, intermixed with a barely traceable path along the side of the creek bed that squeezes through large sets of boulders in a couple of spots. These are essentially all hike-a-bike segments, if not enough to require you to shoulder your bike completely.

Middle Ridge Trail, the true Highlight of the Middle Ridge Loop, starts out modestly, following flatly along the top of this initially broad ridge. There are a couple of extra steep dips and climbs as you go further, but their traversal will be measured in seconds rather than in minutes. As you continue on Middle Ridge Trail, it starts getting more closed-in by the bushes on either side and more twisty. Techy steep (downhill) trail features also start multiplying. As the trail diverts away from the spine of the ridge and starts heading down its northern slope, this becomes doubly so. A few spots in this segment are also badly off-camber. And at least one of these coincides with an extra-narrow stretch of the trail, too. Be cautious.

For two miles, the trail averages no more than 10% grade. There are brief stretches that reach 13% or so, but those are never long enough to truly exhaust you. Then, for another mile or so, the grade stays even lower. On its way up, the trail will start out as a narrow hillside singletrack through a sprinkling of oak trees. Later, it leaves these trees behind and, after a brief open segment, enters a large patch of chaparral through which it continues as a smooth but wider trail (which seems to have been recently redone as of the time of my ride). China Hole Trail terminates by connecting to Manzanita Point Road in the major campground area of the same name.

Flat Frog Trail is the easiest singletrack on the Middle Ridge Loop. As its name seems to hint, it's a trail that sees hardly any elevation change. It's a narrow singletrack that has a very smooth surface. It has barely enough "technical" spots to convince you that it's not a beginner level recreational path in a neighborhood park. In fact, it has two trail features that have their own "caution – walk bike" signs; one of these is a moderate rock step that experienced riders won't think twice about, and the other is a short series of low wooden steps that are just as ridable as that rock step. Overall, though, this is still a beginner-level singletrack. But, that's not to say that it's not enjoyable. It twists sweetly through a sparse covering of oak trees on picturesquely varied terrain.