Mount Madonna

Mount Madonna County Park is a gorgeous park a few minutes away from Gilroy along Hecker Pass Hwy 152. The park boasts 14+ miles of trails on 3,688 acres, much of it lush redwood forest. I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent trail running around the upper area of the park and surprised it had taken me this long to make my way down to these trails! The park also has an extensive camping area with well over one hundred camping and RV sites and new this year are several yurts for rent! Santa Clara County Parks is experimenting with the yurts at Mount Madonna with hopes of expanding to other county parks. I parked at the Sprig Recreation Area and covered most of the trails in the park. From the Sprig parking area, there are three ways to ascend to the upper part of the mountain. The Sprig Trail is a steep and relentless climb in redwood forest while Ridge Trail and Merry-Go-Round Trail are hot, dustry, and rather uninteresting fireroads. The real quality trails in this park are in the upper area where several single track options traverse the hillside amongst redwoods. My favorite trails were the Redwood Trail, Bay View Trail, and Tan Oak Trail. Here are some photos of my explorations on Mount Madonna.