Tulare Hill is a prominent hill in the

Santa Teresa Hills The Santa Teresa Hills are a range of mountains in Santa Clara County, California, located primarily in the city of San Jose. They separate the San Jose neighborhoods of Almaden Valley to the west and Santa Teresa to the east. Geography The ra ...

of western

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It lies along the southernmost edge of

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

, adjacent to the

Metcalf Energy Center The Metcalf Energy Center is a 605 megawatt combined cycle power plant located in Silicon Valley, located in unincorporated Coyote Valley, south of San Jose, California and north of Morgan Hill, California. The power plant is owned by Calpine an ...

. The hill and surrounding of serpentine grasslands are home to the endangered

Bay checkerspot The Bay checkerspot (''Euphydryas editha bayensis'') is a butterfly endemism, endemic to the San Francisco Bay region of the U.S. state of California. It is a federally threatened species, as a subspecies of ''Euphydryas editha''. Since the 1980 ...

butterfly and ''

Dudleya setchellii ''Dudleya abramsii'' subsp. ''setchellii'', known by common name as the Santa Clara Valley dudleya or Santa Clara Valley liveforever, is a member of the ''Dudleya'' genus of succulent perennials, members of the family Crassulaceae. The Santa Clar ...

'' wildflower. A portion of the hill makes up the Tulare Hill Ecological Preserve.

Geography

The hill sits atop the narrowest gap between the Santa Cruz and Diablo mountain ranges, and overlooks the Laguna Seca wetlands in northern Coyote Valley.

History

Spanish padre

Francisco Palóu Francesc Palou (in Catalan) or Francisco Palóu (1723–1789) was a Spanish Franciscan missionary, administrator and historian on the Baja California Peninsula and in Alta California. Palóu made significant contributions to the Alta California ...

passed over Tulare Hill during a 1774 expedition. The hill was once part of the historic

Rancho Santa Teresa Rancho Santa Teresa was a Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Clara County, California given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to José Joaquín Bernal. The grant extended west from Coyote Creek to the Santa Teresa Hills, and included prese ...

and Rancho Laguna Seca lands granted in the early 1800s.

Wildfires

In August 2019, a brush fire consumed approximately 60 acres along the southwestern part of the hill, as well as a small area on the eastern side of nearby

Santa Teresa County Park Santa Teresa County Park is an park in the Santa Teresa neighborhood of San Jose, California, located within the Santa Teresa Hills Park description It is operated by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department. Most of the park co ...

.CalFire, Bayliss Fire, August 2019
/ref>

References

Hills of California Landforms of Santa Clara County, California Geography of San Jose, California Landforms of the San Francisco Bay Area {{SantaClaraCountyCA-geo-stub

Geography

History

Wildfires

See also

References