Morgan Hill resident Stu Nuttall was definitely impressed by the
April 23 and 24 special opening of the Orestimba Wilderness region
of Henry Coe State Park. Even though clouds threatened overhead,
only a few sprinkles came down last weekend
– which kept down trail dust and kept away large crowds.
Morgan Hill resident Stu Nuttall was definitely impressed by the April 23 and 24 special opening of the Orestimba Wilderness region of Henry Coe State Park. Even though clouds threatened overhead, only a few sprinkles came down last weekend – which kept down trail dust and kept away large crowds.
Nuttall realizes putting together the backcountry event takes a lot of hard work by dedicated park administrators and volunteers as well as members of the Pine Ridge Association, a volunteer group organized in the 1970s to preserve the park’s wilderness.
“I was extremely impressed by how they prepared – not just the organization, but the preparation,” Nuttall said. “And to think that most of that came from volunteers, that was an amazing level of preparedness.”
He said he was also impressed by the colorful wild flowers found everywhere throughout the park last weekend. The spring floral display was an “amazing” sight to behold. Earlier this month, he’d taken his family to Death Valley for the heavily publicized once-in-a-lifetime flower bloom in Southern California’s desert region.
Henry Coe’s spring flowers were just as “spectacular” if not more so, he believes.
“What other time of the year would be better to visit the park?” he said. “I definitely think that’s Coe’s best foot forward. That will get the attention of people by showing them how amazing this place is.”
Cameron Bowers, a Henry Coe State Park backcountry ranger who assisted in the weekend adventure, said 190 backpackers and car campers were signed up to stay over night. Also, about 80 to 85 day-users each day were given entry. The park still needs to calculate how many people actually came last weekend, he said.
Those adventure-seekers who did show up, Bowers said, included Boy Scout campers, avid hikers, horse-back riders, mountain bikers and those who simply wanted to fish the lakes or stroll the creeks gazing at wildflowers.
The ranger gave this year’s event a hearty thumbs up. “It’s probably the best backcountry weekend I’ve been involved in,” he said.
The park was not crowded, and the temperature was at a comfortable range, he said.
The popular event helps to introduce a fairly isolated region of Henry Coe to campers and day-trippers who generally would not venture so deep into the wilderness, he said. However, having more than 1,000 visitors coming into the park does cause concern among environmentally minded administrators and Pine Ridge Association members. Thus, the once-a-year opening of Bell Station gates is not publicized as an “annual” event, he said.
“It’s kind of a year by year thing. The powers that be will decide if it’s going to happen again,” he said.
A visitor parking site is now being constructed at the Dowdy Ranch location about seven miles north along a dirt road from Bell Station.
Work is expected to be finished this summer, and if drainage problems are not an issue, visitors will regularly be able to enter the eastern region of Henry Coe and backpack trails starting from the Dowdy Ranch parking lot.
This could take place as early as summer or late as next spring, Bowers said.
If the Dowdy Ranch site does open this year, park administrators will then decide if they will continue with the spring-time Orestimba Wilderness weekend event. “We won’t know until October or November if we’re going to have another one,” Bowers said.
Overall, Bowers has been pleased with how most visitors treat the pristine wilderness region.
“Every year at the backcountry event, I’m not anxious but I kind of wonder if we’re going to get that recreational people who are going to come and thrash the place,” he said. “Every year I’m pleasantly surprised that people who come to Coe respect the park.”
At more than 87,000 acres, Henry Coe State Park is the second largest state park in California. It is six times the size of the island of Bermuda.
