Henry W. Coe State Park (often known simply as Henry Coe or Coe Park) is a state park of California, United States, preserving a vast tract of the Diablo Range. The park is located closest to the city of Morgan Hill, and is located in both Santa Clara and Stanislaus counties. The park contains over , making it the largest state park in northern California, and the second-largest in the state (after Anza-Borrego Desert State Park). Managed within its boundaries is a designated wilderness area of about . This is officially known as the Henry W. Coe State Wilderness, but locally as the Orestimba Wilderness. The park was established in 1959.
History Prior to its use as ranch land, the Diablo Range backcountry now covered by Henry W. Coe State Park was traversed by La Vereda del Monte, a trail between Point of Timber on the Sacramento River Delta and Cantua Creek in the San Joaquin Valley. Joaquin Murrieta and his gang used the route to drive wild or stolen horses south from Contra Costa County, picking up more from stations along the way, passing into the area of the park from the San Antonio Valley via a trail that closely followed the route of County Line Road along the divide of the Diablo Range. Horses were held at several locations now contained within the park, including Valle Atravesado (now flooded by Mississippi Lake), Valle Hondo, site of Pacheco Camp, Paradise Flat and Mustang Flat. Both Mustang Peak and Mustang Flat derive their names from the activities of Murrieta and his gang. Mustang Peak is where the horses held at Paradise Flat or Mustang Flat were fed into a passing drove.Frank F. Latta, JOAQUIN MURRIETA AND HIS HORSE GANGS, Bear State Books, Santa Cruz, California. 1980.
The park began as the Pine Ridge Ranch, a private cattle ranch of . It was the home of Henry Willard Coe, Jr. and his family from 1905 until his death in 1943. Coe left the ranch to his son, Henry Sutcliffe Coe, who sold it to the Beach Land and Cattle Company of Fresno County in 1948. The ranch's road network was greatly expanded during this time. Coe's daughter, Sada Sutcliffe Coe Robinson, re-purchased the ranch in 1950 and donated it to Santa Clara County in 1953, when it became Henry Willard Coe County Park. It became a state park in 1958. Additional adjacent lands were added, and for many years, the park's size stood at . Indeed, many currently available state road maps still show the park in its 13,000 acre configuration. The park expanded considerably in the early 1980s with the purchase of adjacent properties to the east and south (the Gill-Mustang and Coit ranches, respectively), bringing the size to ). In the early 1990s the Redfern Ranch added some in the south, and since 2000 lands to the west have been purchased for inclusion. The park is still growing.
The northern part of the park, including the Orestimba Wilderness, was swept by a massive wildfire starting on September 3, 2007. Named the Lick Fire after it was first spotted by nearby Lick Observatory, the fire grew to by the evening of September 6, and ultimately burned by the time it was contained on September 11. Fire officials blamed the fire on burning debris within a barrel at a hunting club adjacent to the park.Lick Fire General Information , California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection The person responsible for the fire came forward, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge, and was ultimately ordered to pay $750,000 in restitution.Charge: Teacher started Lick fire, San Jose Mercury News, 2007-09-27 All areas affected by the fire were re-opened to unrestricted public access on February 16, 2008.
Geography Located in the Diablo Range backcountry east of Morgan Hill, CA - between the San Antonio Valley (north) and Pacheco Pass (south), the park consists of a series of high ridges separated by steep walled canyons, with occasional level valley bottoms and distinct peaks. Most of the ridges run around in elevation, with canyon bottoms usually around above sea level.
The highest point in the park is on the northernmost boundary, at about elevation. This point may be considered to be on the slopes of Mt. Stakes, a mile north of the park's northern boundary. (Mt. Stakes, at , is the highest point in Stanislaus County). The lowest point in the park is at the Bell Station access point in the southeast; this is only a little above in elevation. Since this is a mere strip of land along a road right-of-way, it is often not thought of as an integral part of the state park. The lowest point in the main body of the park is the place where the North Fork of Pacheco Creek flows out, at about elevation, also in the southeast corner.
Prominent ridges and peaks in the park, from west to east and north to south, include Pine Ridge, Middle Ridge, Blue Ridge (with Mount Sizer the highest point), Rock House Ridge, Bear Mountain, Bear Mountain Peak, Robison Mountain (not Robinson Mountain as it is too often misspelled), Rooster Comb, Palassou Ridge, Mahoney Ridge (and Mahoney Meadows), Willow Ridge, Pacheco Ridge, Mustang Peak, Walsh Peak, Willson Field Hill, Wasno Ridge, Burra Burra Peak, Willson Peak, Rock Springs Peak, and Phegley Ridge. The park is divided into 13 zones on the official map. From West to East, and North to South, they are: Western Zone (Park HQ) Blue Ridge Zone (Mt Sizer, Hat Rock) Interior Zone (Bear Mountain) Mississippi Zone Orestimba Wilderness Zone Mustang Peak Zone Mahoney Zone Coit Zone Pacheco Zone (Dowdy Ranch Entrance) Grizzly Gulch Zone Kelly Zone Dormida Zone Phegley Zone (Bill's Hill, Redfern Pond)
The park map also shows 1) Thomas Addition (near Mt. Sizer) and 2) Lakeview Addition (just below the park's HQ) to which there is no public access as of now (late 2013), nor any plans yet to make those areas accessible to public.
The area encompasses parts of three major watersheds: Coyote Creek, Orestimba Creek, and Pacheco Creek. Coyote Creek is fed by Grizzly Creek, the Little, Middle, and East Forks of Coyote Creek, Kelly Cabin Canyon, Grizzly Gulch (not be confused with Grizzly Creek), and Hunting Hollow. Coyote Creek flows into Coyote Lake and Anderson Lake, and then north through San Jose into the San Francisco Bay. The South Fork Orestimba Creek originates in the park, and is fed by Red Creek, Pinto and Robinson creeks, and Lion Canyon. After joining the North Fork outside the park, it flows out to the San Joaquin Valley, where it joins the San Joaquin River. The latter runs more or less north and, if it were not diverted, would flow out to San Pablo Bay. The North Fork Pacheco Creek also originates within the park, and it is fed by Mississippi Creek. Cañada de la Dormida independently reaches Pacheco Creek outside of the park boundaries. If not diverted, the waters of Pacheco Creek would eventually reach Monterey Bay via the Pajaro River. There is a fourth, minor watershed within the park: the small creeks of the Upper San Antonio Valley in the north flow into San Antonio Creek north of the park. This, in turn, joins Arroyo Valle, which flows into Alameda Creek, then flows into San Francisco Bay west of the city of Fremont.
The creeks are all seasonal; none of them flow year-round, though all have holes in which water may be found during all seasons. Depending on rainfall and temperatures, the creeks generally flow from November to May. After heavy rainfall, the creeks can become impassable, raging torrents, though usually they are not difficult to ford if one does not mind getting wet or (in winter and early spring) cold.
The park contains dozens of reservoirs created by the former ranch owners for watering cattle and for recreational fishing and hunting. The largest is Mississippi Lake, at about and long. Other notables are Coit, Kelly, Jackrabbit, and Paradise lakes.
Ecology The park protects part of the California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. Large parts of the park are covered in chaparral and oak woodlands.
Plant life
Besides its size, the park is notable for a mostly intact flora. Unlike many other Bay Area parks, there are no large stands of non-native trees or shrubs. There are forested ridge-tops and slopes interspersed with chaparral and grasslands, with some creeks supporting distinct riparian vegetation.
Native trees which dominate the park include valley oak (Quercus lobata), blue oak (Q. douglasii), coast live oak (Q. agrifolia), canyon live oak (Q. chrysolepis), interior live oak (Q. wislizenii), gray pine (Pinus sabiniana), ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa), Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii), California laurel (Umbellularia californica), California buckeye (Aesculus californica), white alder (Alnus rhombifolia), California juniper (Juniperus californica), blue elderberry (Sambucus mexicana) and California sycamore (Platanus racemosa). Big-berry Manzanita (Arctostaphylos glauca) reach remarkable size within the park (over 20 feet (6 m) tall) and can grow as either small trees or large shrubs. Other prominent shrubs and wildflowers include chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum), toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis), California sagebrush (Artemisia californica), eastwood manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa), yerba santa (Eriodictyon californicum), buckbrush (Ceanothus cuneatus), California gooseberry (Ribes californicum), fuchsia-flowered gooseberry (Ribes speciosum), yellow mariposa lily (Calochortus luteus)C. Michael Hogan. 2009. Yellow Mariposa Lily: Calochortus luteus, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg and mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus betuloides).
Of the trees, blue oak is the most common and widespread. It is most noticeable in the eastern side of the park, where it often forms pure stands. In other areas it may be dominated by other trees, but if the habitat will support trees, blue oak is usually there. Gray pine is also almost ubiquitous throughout, but curiously, is absent in much of the far southwestern portion, perhaps because of the influence of summer fog, rare elsewhere.
Ponderosa pines dominate parts of three ridges in the west: Pine, Middle, and Blue, usually crowning the summits, but often extending down into cooler canyon slopes. They are rarely very dense, and visitors accustomed to seeing ponderosa pine forests in the Sierra Nevada may come to two opposite, and fallacious, conclusions: 1) That the pines were logged, and all we see left is a small percentage of survivors; or 2) that they were all planted. In reality, there is no evidence (stumps, historical accounts) that any significant logging took place, nor does the relatively wide extent of the stands and the great variety of age groups support a tree-planting theory. Most likely, the pines are relicts of a broader distribution during cooler climates. When the climate warmed, the only places the trees could survive were up on the high cooler ridges and shady slopes where they grow today.
Chamise is undoubtedly the most abundant shrub in Coe Park, covering acres of hot, dry slopes and poor soils.
Animal life