Henry W. Coe State Park — Spring Walk in December

Now that my children are all adults, new additional backpacking opportunities are presenting themselves from time to time. After spending Thanksgiving with all my children at home, I found myself with a free week around Christmas that was a perfect opportunity to pursue an idea that had crossed my mind several times over the years. Visit every spring in Henry W. Coe State Park.

Henry W. Coe State Park is the largest State Park in Northern California, with over 87,000 acres across Santa Clara County and Stanislaus County. The ridges in the park reach up to 3,500 ft and afford great views that include sights of the Sierra Nevada.

Before it became a state park, the land was used for cattle ranching. As water is scarce during many months of the year, the ranchers used many means to provide water. Some creeks were dammed to create lakes like Mississippi Lake, Coit Lake and Kelly Lake. Ponds were built to catch runoff from the hills. Springs were developed with catch basins or spring boxes and troughs.  Some of these springs are maintained even today by rangers and a group of volunteers who do wonderful work at Henry W. Coe State Park. They maintain a website with the status of these springs that contains 76 entries. When planning my trip to all these springs, I noticed on the park map additional spring symbols. Some with interesting names like Dry Tree Spring or Sada’s Soda Spring and others without name. There were altogether 40 additional springs, I could find between the map by the park association and old USGS maps. Many of them in the ‘middle of nowhere’ that seemed hard to reach due to brush or steepness of terrain or both. Visiting these 116 springs across 87,000 acres during my week of vacation looked like an opportunity for a splendid adventure right in my backyard.

My first rough plan had me walk over 150 miles and climb around 40,000 ft. That seemed like a perfect fit. By including both weekends around my vacation, I planned for 9 days.

The following photos give only the slightest glimpse of my experience. An experience that ranged from wildlife sighting of deer, quails, pigs, bobcats, hawks and a majestic tule elk with enormous antlers to fantastic views of the valleys and ridges – especially at sunrise and sunset. An experience that included hour-long bushwhacking though thick chamise and manzanita brush to a seemingly impossible-to-reach spot on the map to the deep satisfaction of knowing to have found the needle in the haystack when there where remnants of a developed spring at that point.

Picture 1: I visited all three entrances to the park during my trip. Headquarter, Hunting Hollow and Dowdy Ranch

Picture 2: Henry W. Coe Monument near HQ entrance. “May these quiet hills bring peace to the souls of those who are seeking”

Picture 3: Old restroom at “Mexican Flat” an old campsite that has long fallen out of use

Picture 4: Unnamed Spring

Picture 5: Frog Pond

Picture 6: Bridal Veil Spring

Picture 7: Unnamed spring

Picture 8: Tin Cup Spring

Picture 9: Madrone Soda Springs

Picture 10: Rabbit Spring

Picture 11: Upper Cullen Spring

Picture 12: Brem Horse Camp Spring

Picture 13: James Spring

Picture 14: Elderberry Spring – one of the many still maintained springs

Picture 15: Sunrise on Rockhouse Ridge

Picture 16: One of 36 balloons I picked up on that trip – and I saw many more hanging in the trees. May be people would reconsider buying helium balloons if the would see what they do to the wilderness.

Picture 17: Mushrooms

Picture 18: The Narrows – hiking knee-deep in the creek

Picture 19: View across the ridges

Picture 20: Grass, trees, rocks – a perfect combination

Picture 21: Willson Camp at Sunrise

Picture 22: Sunrise on Bowl Trail

Picture 23: Sunrise along Bowl Trail

Picture 24: Hole-in-the-Rock Waterfall

Picture 25: December 25 – Christmas tree decoration saying, “Oh Happy Day”. This balloon came from Lodi, roughly 100 miles away.

Picture 26: Rooster Comb

Picture 27: Paradise is lost -– the dam at Paradise Lake broke

Picture 28: I shit on your shit 😊

Picture 29: Views everywhere

Picture 30: San Antonio Valley

Picture 31: Tule elk with impressive antlers. This is the one time where I wished for a real camera instead of my iPhone.

Picture 32: Sunrise at Mississippi Ridge

Picture 33: Wood Duck Pond

While these pictures can provide only a small glimpse into the experience, they nevertheless convey what is so fittingly written on the Henry W. Coe monument: “May these quiet hills bring peace to the souls of those who are seeking”

Thinking a little out of the box – visiting all 116 locations with spring symbols on the map – resulted in a wonderful, quiet, peaceful backpacking trek. Neither the shortest days of the year nor the occasional rain created any obstacles, but enriched the trip with wonderful sights, sunrises and sunsets, fog in the valley and lots of time to look at the stars at night.

Happy Holidays and a Healthy New Year to Everyone!

Manfred