September and October are often the hottest months in the Silicon Valley, limiting the enjoyment of many of the open space preserves outside of the early morning and late evening hours. If you don’t want to head over the Santa Cruz Mountains to the cooler coastal areas, your best option for hiking during the heat is one of the preserves that winds through the forested areas of the mountains.
Heat waves typically bake the Silicon Valley region several times each summer. After more than a week of temperatures reaching into the 90s, I decided to hike Picchetti Ranch Open Space Preserve located off Montebello Road in the mountainous area of Cupertino.
This is one of Midpeninsula Regional Open Space’s smaller preserves. Picchetti’s 308-acres offers about 3.7 miles of easy to moderate trails that criss-cross the area around a seasonal pond in the upper middle section of the preserve. Most of this small trail network winds through madrone, coast live oak and California bay trees, providing ample shade.
Dogs and bikes are not allowed on these trails. A portion of the trail system is open to horse riding.
As the preserve is connected by Santa Clara County’s Stevens Creek County Park via the 4.1 mile out and back Zinfandel Trail, there is an option for a longer hike.
Parking at Picchetti Ranch Open Space Preserve
Midpen offers free parking with a small 50-car lot next door to Picchetti Winery. There is ample parking if you arrive early enough. The winery opens to the public at 11am and this lot also serves as overflow parking for this business. The lot is known to fill up, especially on weekends, later in the morning.
Picchetti Winery
The trailhead from the parking lot leads hikers past the Picchetti Winery to the left. Originally built in the 1880s by Italian immigrants, brothers Vincenzo and Secundo Picchetti. Several of the original wooden frame buildings and remnant orchards and vineyards remain at the site. The winery is leased by Midpen to a private business.
Entering the Picchetti Ranch Preserve
Stay to the right of the winery to enter the Picchetti Ranch Preserve trail system. The main trail through the preserve and on into Stevens Creek County Park is called the Zinfandel Trail. This trail leads hikers past bathrooms near the winery and through a mixed California bay and oak tree forest.
A seasonal pond, dry during this time of year, is located about 0.3 miles into the preserve. There is a system of mostly gently grade, compacted dirt trails that lead around and up to a slightly higher elevation.
Vista trail winds through dried grass and mature oak trees where views of the Sierra Azul range 14 miles away (as the crow flies) can be seen. From this vantage point, The Cube, a Cold War era radar tower that sits at the top of Mount Umunhum in this range can be seen.
Orchard Loop Trail
Orchard Loop Trail is the exception to the relatively easy grade of the trails in this area. This trail is fairly steep and has the gravel that Midpen is overly fond of laying down. If you are walking down this trail, mind your step so your feet don’t slide on the loose rock.
This trail is the widest trail in the area so I suspect it was probably once an old road cut given the steep grade.
Walking along Orchard Loop Trail provides sweeping views of Stevens Creek Reservoir and the valley floor. Orchard Loop Trail ends at a trailhead on Montebello Road with no parking. Hikers can also take Orchard Loop Trail south where it connects to Bear Meadow Trail which ends at a trailhead on Stevens Canyon Road with limited parking.
Zinfandel Trail
Zinfandel Trail continues on as the only trail through the lower section of Picchetti Range Preserve. If you hike this trail, it also leads on into Stevens Creek County Park and ends at Stevens Canyon Road where it connects with other trails that lead further into the county park and other preserves.
Zinfandel Trail is a single-track compacted dirt hiker only trail that slows descends down through the forested hills populated by oaks, California bay, and madrone trees. It’s about 4.1 miles out and back from the parking lot to the trailhead on Stevens Creek Road.
Even on a hot day, the sheltered canopy is noticeably cooler than the exposed sections of the trail. Be sure to bring bug spray or bug balm as the insects are quite active, even in the middle of summer.
Zinfandel Trail criss crosses over several creeks, all of which are dry during the summer.
There are a few sections of Zinfandel Trail in Stevens Creek County Park that wind along the side of the canyon that are fully exposed to the sun. These sections are fairly short, so even hiking on a hot day isn’t too strenuous for most people.
Birding in Pichetti Ranch
Birds can be mostly heard and not seen while hiking on the trails. The large amounts of insects that buzz around hikers make birding at this time of year challenging.
Dark-eye juncos are the most visible birds as they hop and peck along the trails. While scrub jays can be heard screeching, the loudest birds in the area are spotted towhees with their catlike mew calls.
Wrentit, hermit thrush, oak titmouse, chestnut-backed chickadee, and golden-crowned sparrow are other common bird species present in the area in October.
