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1337. Upper Grizzly Gulch Falls (02/21/26)
Hikers (0):
Distance: 13 miles
Rating: 3 difficulty, 9 beauty
Park info: Henry Coe State Park near San Martin
Write-up by Steve -- Pictures by Jarda, Giulia, Mihail, Milon and Steve
A year ago, Peter M wrote about visiting Upper Grizzly Gulch Falls. He sent a helpful link from his visit, including information on a downstream flow gauge as a proxy for the local watershed. The week of this hike began with heavy rain, but little rain was predicted by the weekend, so I scheduled the hike. Peter had commented that 200 cfs was pretty strong for that proxy gauge. Two days before the hike, the flow rate was 2000 cfs (and two days before that, it was 3100 cfs), but by the time we did the hike, it was down to 200 cfs. Whew, although I was hoping for 400 cfs.
I had planned to do the hike counter-clockwise, which would get the elevation gain out of the way sooner but make the falls much later. I changed my mind before sending out the hike, believing it would be better to stick together earlier, do the falls, and then spread out for the elevation gain. Since we had a small group, I gave the option to change the plan. Both Giulia (who, like me, hates the flat part of Gilroy Hot Springs Road) and Mihail (who didn't "have" water shoes) preferred the official plan, so it was a quick vote at the start of the hike. Later we'd discover that Mihail had water shoes in his car, he just didn't want to carry them. I couldn't believe it--they weigh so little. However, both he and Giulia also remembered there was a new bridge at the first crossing of Grizzly Gulch Creek which wasn't there when we did it last time.
The bridge was there and open. We walked right over the fast-running and wide creek. Soon after, we were delighted to see that the new trail (which several of us have seen under construction in the past) was open. We would later encounter people working on this trail who told us it was closed. I explained to two different sets of people that we walked in specifically because it was open, and they lamented that it just appeared open because they were moving in supplies. I get it, but how would the random hiker know? Anyway, I promised (being in the front of the group) that we wouldn't continue on the next new trail segment once we reached the original trail. When that second crossing presented itself, Mihail still wanted to take the new trail, so off he went but everyone else continued on the old trail as good citizens. The old route would again cross new trail farther up--they are really flattening it out. That's great, but hopefully the original steeper trail will remain for hikers to avoid bikers.
I reached the junction where I had determined there was once a road based on old satellite photos. Independently (true story), I heard of an old homestead in the area and realized that this road must go there. Once everyone caught up, Mihail suggested turning back a bit to head down a more open slope he'd seen in satellite photos. I wasn't having that because I was pretty sure this road would get us most of the way there and I also intended to check out that homestead. I assured everyone that they could go back any way they pleased. So down the (old) road we went, which, after the first bit, turned out to be unambiguously the easiest route. We found the old homestead at the end of the road. The main structure was still intact, but the rest (a horse shelter, a chicken coop, and some other outbuildings) was in disarray. Still, not a bad place to retire.
From there we went across a small field and eventually down a (well-running) creek to reach Grizzly Gulch proper. I was expecting to cross Grizzly Gulch twice based on Peter M's write-up, but we had little problem reaching the now famous waterfall staying on the north side of the creek the entire time. We would all agree (I think?) that it is, indeed, the second-best waterfall in Coe after Pacheco Falls, and we were glad to have made the trip.
As a side note, I wouldn't say this was any harder than the mildly more popular lower falls, based on our prior visit. It is definitely more elevation gain and more fun to do something remote and unloved.
On the way back, it was a free-for-all. Mihail wanted to climb up some rocks on the way back without knowing what was at the top of those rocks. Jarda followed. Smarter people went back the way we came. I explored the homestead a little more and found a spring on the backside (I was checking to see if the road kept going behind it). It seems like a great location for most things, but hard to imagine you could live off the land just there.
I took my sweet time getting back up to the main trail. I spotted Mihail reaching the ridge trail a bit downslope from me, so we caught up. I'd seen Giulia earlier in the aforementioned minor creek. Mihail confirmed Jarda went up behind him, so I assumed everything was good. Miles later I waited at Wilson Peak, taking pictures of the snow on the obvious Mt Hamilton as well as the less obvious (but correctly guessed) Mt. Eylar. Soon Giulia and Mihail appeared. Got a second confirmation that everyone was accounted for, although Jarda would later claim I abandoned him since we didn't see each other until the end. What can you do?
We hiked along the ridge to Lyman-Wilson Trail, where Mihail and I debated which distant peak to the south had snow on it...and missed the turn. Giulia did not miss the turn, so was well ahead. Mihail eventually got ahead of me on the downhill and was long gone. Upon reaching Hunting Hollow (the flat part back to the cars), I was happy to encounter many wide stream crossings where I could use the water shoes that had been dangling on my backpack for several hours. While I hadn't needed the loppers, the extra pair of socks, nor the towel I'd carried, at least the water shoes were used. There were five unavoidable crossings before the parking lot.
We had a fine post-party in the Hunting Hollow parking lot followed by 100% attendance at the post-post party in Morgan Hill at Running Shop and Hops for some pizza/beer.
Overlaid tracks from Jarda, Mihail, and Steve.
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