Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve is managed by the

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Formed in 1972 by voter initiative, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is a non-enterprise special district in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has acquired and preserved a regional green belt of open space land and provides o ...

Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together ...

. It is approximately in area. The preserve is named for the

Sierra Azul The Sierra Azul is a mountain range in Santa Clara County, California. It is the southern half of the Santa Cruz Mountains range, which is divided into two parts by California Highway 17 into what the colonizing Spanish called the Sierra Morena or ...

or "Blue Mountains", the name the colonizing Spanish used for the half of the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean fr ...

south of today's California Highway 17. The park features the peaks of

Mount Umunhum Mount Umunhum (Ohlone for "Resting Place of the Hummingbird") is a peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, located in Santa Clara County, California. It is the fourth-highest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, after Loma Prieta, Crystal Peak, and Mt. ...

Mount Thayer Mount Thayer is a mountain in the Santa Cruz mountain range located in Santa Clara County, California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a tot ...

, and El Sombroso peak . El Sombroso is about north by northeast of Mount Umunhum. Trails connect from

Lexington Reservoir Lexington Reservoir is an artificial lake on the Los Gatos Creek near Los Gatos, California. The James J. Lenihan Dam, a high, thick earthen dam, forms the third-largest reservoir in Santa Clara County. Background The reservoir is i ...

, on the western edge of the park, to Hicks Road on the eastern edge. The preserve protects the upper watersheds of two important tributaries of the Guadalupe River. The upper headwaters of Los Gatos Creek originate just south of

Loma Prieta Loma Prieta (from Spanish ''loma'' -hill, ''prieta'' -dark) is high and is the highest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. Although the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was named for this mountain, the actual epicenter was fiv ...

, wrapping around the preserve on the western side before emptying into Lexington Reservoir. Guadalupe Creek originates just east of Mount Umunhum and flows into

Guadalupe Reservoir Guadalupe Reservoir is a reservoir in Santa Clara County, California, United States, about south of the city of San Jose, California. It is at an elevation of . It has a surface area of and a capacity of . The reservoir is located along Hicks Roa ...

then follows Hicks Road as it wraps around the eastern side of the preserve. Parts of Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve are not yet open to the public, but many sections are, and these include miles of trails, old roads (some paved, some not), a man-made lake, and other amenities. The terrain varies from wooded creek canyons to

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterrane ...

hills with views to open meadows.

References

External links

Sierra Azul

Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve webpage

Downloadable map of the preserve {{Coord, 37, 10, 07, N, 121, 15, 42, W, type:landmark_region:US-CA, display=title Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Parks in the San Francisco Bay Area Protected areas of Santa Clara County, California Nature reserves in California Bay Area Ridge Trail