Sanborn County Park is a 3,453 acre (13.97 km²) county park situated in the Santa Cruz Mountains, managed by the

Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department, sometimes referred to as Santa Clara County Parks Department or Santa Clara County Parks, is a government department in Santa Clara County, California. The department manages 29 parks with a total ...

. The deeply forested park features over 15 miles of trails, second-growth redwoods, and creeks that flow year-round. It offers hiking, RV camping, walk-in campsites, and picnicking/ BBQ sites. In the summer months, Sanborn County Park hosts the only outdoor

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

an company in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

. The park is located four miles west of the town of Saratoga and straddles the steep slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains from Sanborn Road all the way up to

Skyline Boulevard A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land. City skyline ...

. Adjacent properties include the Walden West Environmental Education Center, Castle Rock State Park, the Los Altos Rod and Gun Club Range and the Santa Clara County Peace Officers Association gun range.

Practical information

The park is open year-round, although there is no entry after sunset. Sanborn County Park is located on Sanborn Road. From the city of Saratoga, proceed two miles (3 km) west on Highway 9 to Sanborn Road, thence turning left onto Sanborn Road, traveling one mile (1.6 km) to the park entrance. Overnight camping is permitted and RV use is allowed for a limited number of

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...

s at designated locations. Pets must be leashed and are permitted in picnic and RV areas, and most trails. There are entry fees collected at all times. There are strictly enforced rules prohibiting the picking of vegetation or damaging of trees. All facilities are not handicapped accessible, although there is an all-access trail emanating from the visitor center. Picnic tables and some grassy lawn areas are available in a very small portion of the park.

History

The site was long-visited by native Americans including the Ohlone people as evidenced by the

grinding slab 250px, Stone slab in east-central California used to grind acorns In archaeology, a grinding slab is a ground stone artifact generally used to grind plant materials into usable size, though some slabs were used to shape other ground stone artif ...

which forms half of the entry gate of to the rustic mansion on site. This log-style house was built in 1908 by the Honorable James R. Welch, Superior Court Judge for Santa Clara County as a summer retreat for his family. The judge added orchards and modified a sag pond into a decorative pond with a waterfall. In the 1956 the property was purchased by "America's Uranium King", Vernon J. Pick, who established a 200-person electronics company on site and named it Walden West after the cabin by a pond in Henry David Thoreau's book Walden. Sanborn County Park was purchased in the late 1970s in an expansionary era of the

under the leadership of Robert Amery and Charles Rockwell. A series of land acquisitions throughout the county, with the intention to develop a greatly expanded set of county parks emphasizing large land area and low intensity uses. The Sanborn County Park master plan was developed in this era. The county retained Earth Metrics Inc. to prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the land use change, pursuant to requirements of the

California Environmental Quality Act The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a California statute passed in 1970 and signed in to law by then-Governor Ronald Reagan, shortly after the United States federal government passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), t ...

. Fairly soon thereafter the County Board of Supervisors approved the park plan and began development of necessary road and trail improvements. From 1976 to 2010 the main house was the site of the Sanborn Park Hostel, entirely renovated by volunteers, which was proud to charge the lowest rate of any hostel in the United States ($14/night at the time of closing).Remembering Sanborn Park Hostel
/ref>. The hostel was forced to close in the face of increasing insurance costs and reduced international travel after 9/11.

Sanborn Science and Nature Center

Opened in 1982, the Youth Science Institute - Sanborn Science and Nature Center is a science and nature education facility operated by the Youth Science Institute. The center features live animals found in the Santa Cruz Mountains,

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

and

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

exhibits, an

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

zoo and a regional plant garden. The center offers nature and science school and group programs, after-school science and summer camp programs. The center hosts an annual Insect Fair in May.

Overview for hikers

Exposed on the steep canyon eastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Sanborn County Park has one of the coolest summer climates of Santa Clara County's parks. Towering redwood forests add to this eastern slope exposure in keeping hiking

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. ...

s comfortable in the heavy use period, from June to September; moreover, there are abundant

mixed forest Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These fo ...

locales having

Coast live oak ''Quercus agrifolia'', the California live oak, or coast live oak, is a highly variable, often evergreen oak tree, a type of live oak, native to the California Floristic Province. It may be shrubby, depending on age and growing location, but is ...

Pacific madrone ''Arbutus menziesii'' or Pacific madrone (commonly madrone or madrona in the United States and arbutus in Canada), is a species of broadleaf evergreen tree in the family Ericaceae, native to the western coastal areas of North America, from Br ...

Big leaf maple ''Acer macrophyllum'', the bigleaf maple or Oregon maple, is a large deciduous tree in the genus '' Acer''. It is native to western North America, mostly near the Pacific coast, from southernmost Alaska to southern California. Some stands are al ...

and Tanbark oak. The park features the first segment of the regional

Bay Area Ridge Trail The Bay Area Ridge Trail (Ridge Trail) is a planned multi-use trail along the hill and mountain ridgelines ringing the San Francisco Bay Area, in Northern California. Currently, have been established. When complete, the trail will connect ov ...

in Santa Clara County, which extends along the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains to become the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail, which continues to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. This Bay Area Ridge Trail ultimately circumnavigates the entire Bay Area at a length of . The Sanborn and San Andreas trails ascend the eastern mountain slope, eventually joining the Cactus to Clouds Trail (AKA Skyline Trail) and

. Summit Rock, which is an established rock-climbing venue offers a panoramic outlook over Saratoga and the South Bay, lies at the upper limit of the park, but is readily reached from the Skyline Boulevard side. At the southeastern corner of Sanborn County Park sits Lake Ranch Reservoir, an attractive tiny mountain lake, accessible via either a steep canyon trail at the terminus of Sanborn Road, or by way of a longer, more level trail originating at Black Road. The latter trail, which sinuates high up along the flanks of Lyndon Canyon, is a lightly used trail, but extremely lush and forested; it crosses numerous small

riparian zone A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...

s, whose creeks tumble into the steep-sided canyon, originally formed by the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizonta ...

. Shorter, less strenuous trails extend through the redwood stands and along creeksides within the lower reaches of Sanborn County Park.

Vegetation

Besides the tree

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

noted above, the park contains a variety of native plants, first surveyed in the Earth Metrics EIR. Examples of this

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

are: * Blue elderberry, ''Sambucus mexicana'' * California maidenhair fern, ''Adiantum jordanii'' * California mugwort, ''Artemisia douglasiana'' *

California poppy ''Eschscholzia californica'', the California poppy, golden poppy, California sunlight or cup of gold, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae, native to the United States and Mexico. It is cultivated as an ornamental pla ...

, ''Eschscholzia californica'', the state flower * Elk clover, ''Aralia californica'' * Flowering currant, ''Ribes sanguineum'' * Miniature lupine, ''Lupinus bicolor'' * Miner's lettuce, ''Claytonia perfoliata'' * Poison oak, ''Toxicodendron diversilobum'' * Slender tarweed, ''Madia gracilis'' * Sticky cinquefoil, ''Potentilla glandulosa'' *

Toyon ''Heteromeles arbutifolia'' (; more commonly by Californian botanists), commonly known as toyon, is a common perennial shrub native to extreme southwest Oregon, California, and the Baja California Peninsula. It is the sole species in the genus ...

, ''Heteromeles arbutifolia''

Geology

The

San Andreas fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizonta ...

runs directly under the park. The entrance station and main parking lots are on the

North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacif ...

. As you walk uphill across the broad sloping lawn you are crossing the fault zone. The fault is not visible below your feet as it is covered by an

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

of material that have eroded from the mountain. Once you reach the kiosk at the bottom of the campsite path you have crossed over to the Pacific Plate. In terms of fault blocks you parked the car on the

New Almaden Block New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz Albums and EPs * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartn ...

which featured rocks of the

Franciscan Complex The Franciscan Complex or Franciscan Assemblage is a geologic term for a late Mesozoic terrane of heterogeneous rocks found throughout the California Coast Ranges, and particularly on the San Francisco Peninsula. It was named by geologist Andrew ...

. You are now standing on the Salinian Block which features sandstones of the Vaqueros and San Lorenzo formations. Subtle evidence for earthquake activity may be found at numerous locations within the park as described in USGS publication "''Where's the San Andreas Fault? A Guidebook to Tracing the Fault on Public Lands in the San Francisco Bay Region''", chapters 5 and 6. The guide shows where to spot evidence of offset drainages,

fault scarp A fault scarp is a small step or offset on the ground surface where one side of a fault has moved vertically with respect to the other. It is the topographic expression of faulting attributed to the displacement of the land surface by movement a ...

s, stream capture, shutter ridges, and sag ponds as you venture through the park.

References

External links

Sanborn County Park Official Site

Sanborn County Park Guide Map

Sanborn County Park Walk In Campground Guide Map

Sanborn Science and Nature Center
{{coord, 37, 14, 30, N, 122, 5, 15, W , region:US-CA_dim:4000 , display=title County Parks in Santa Clara County, California Regional parks in California Nature centers in California Bay Area Ridge Trail