Almaden quicksilver county park, San Jose CA. 08/23/2015

Summary

Location: Almaden quicksilver county park, San Jose California
Date & Time: 08/23/2015 12:30 PM
Distance: 8 miles (Planned for a 5 mile hike but a bad trail choice made it 8)
Duration: 3 hours 45 minutes
Difficulty (1-5): 3, Medium, there is some elevation changes but nothing steep, parts of the trail is in shade and the trails are mostly well maintained fire roads.
Official web page: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/AlmadenPark.aspx

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Story

Yesterday it was time to get back out on the trails again. For the last two weeks i haven't hardly moved at all after the accident i had on mount Shasta (http://hikinginbayarea.blogspot.se/2015/08/mount-shasta-avalanche-gulch-mt-shasta.html).

We decided to go the entire family and we thought that Almaden could be an awesome hike also for Hilda. She is only 12 years old but are a real fighter out on the trails and she likes it even though she would never admit that to us :)
She also just got new hiking shoes that we bought only a few days ago at REI. I really dont want to know how much money i have spent in those stores the last year... :)

My daughters new shoes from REI

The plan was to do the historic trail that should be about 5 miles. And we did that with a slight twist when i made a wrong turn and we ended up at the park exit instead of the planned trail.

We started the hike from the Hacienda parking lot, parking is easy and free. They have a great information board and some free maps you can use.
Here you can pick up a map of the "historic trail" that shows not only where to go but also has a lot of great information about all the historic mining sites you will pass on the hike. 

Almaden information board

Seems like they have had some mountain lion sightings last few weeks, there was warnings everywhere

We started to slowly walk uphill on the Deep gulch trail for almost a mile, here it is really nice to walk because almost the entire trail from the start up to the English camp in shade.
The English camp is where all the English speaking miners used to live, they could rent a house here for themselves or with their family for about 5-10 USD / month!
But there is basically nothing left except an old barn or similar.

Wife and daughter on Deep gulch trail

Great shade on this part of the trail

The english camp, where all the "english" speaking miners used to live

After the English camp you are almost at the top of the hill and there is no more shade. The trail is still great and you will have some really nice views of both the surrounding mountains and of the south bay area.

Here you can see the rotary furnace building that was used to separate the mercury from the mined ore. It was in use until 1976 before they closed down the mining here.
Just after this we selected incorrect trail and hiked out from the park until we realized we were wrong, that added an additional 3 mile twist to our hike, but it was ok since it gave us some more nice views.

The rotary furnace building that was used to separate mercury from the mined ore

A nice rock foundation

My daughter is starting to get warm :)

The "wrong" trail

The hike then continues with more interesting places to see like for example the hanging tree and the San Cristobal mine that is the only tunnel in the park that you can actually enter for a few hundred feet.

The San Cristobal tunnel

This is cool, you can actually enter the tunnel for a few hundred feet

Daughter outside the tunnel

After this it is time to start to walk down again, back into the shade again for about two more miles before being back at the parking lot.
Happy and a little bit tired we were back at the car about four hours after we started.

We had a great Sunday afternoon in a great park that offers both nice trails as well as interesting historic sites to see and learn about.

I highly recommend this park!