Fremont Older to Steven's Creek Reservoir Loop

Dogs Leashed

Features Lake · Views · Wildflowers

Hike through two different parks with two very different personalities. Fremont Older provides wide open views of the bay and valley while Steven's Creek Reservoir gives you lush and twisted singletrack.

The parking lot is very small and fills extremely fast on weekend mornings and weekday evenings. Show up early or look for parking on the side of Prospect.

Start from the main parking lot and get the ascending underway on the Cora Older Trail. This trail winds through shaded doubletrack and opens up to grass lands and gravel fire road roads. Continue up the fire road and turn left to start making your way down the Hayfield Trail.

Shortly along the Hayfield Trail, you'll come to a trailhead for the Toyon Trail. The Toyon Trail continues through a short section of slightly uphill doubletrack and dumps you out to the Bay Trail. Continue slight right / straight onto the Bay View Trail fire road. The aptly named Bay View Trail provides exactly that, views of the bay and valley. Look out for horses and horse poop. This trail is gradually uphill although it looks flat.

When you come close to the water tower, turn right onto the Coyote Ridge Trail fire road. Turn left at the next fork and start descending. Head for the electrical line tower on the trail, and you'll come to the Steven's Creek County Park Entrance and the trailhead for the Lookout Trail. This is where your descent on lush narrow singletrack begins! There will be lots of twists, tight turns, and some log steps to jump off of as you make your way down into the canyon.

The Lookout Trail eventually turns into the Stevens Creek / Tony Look Trail, which provides mostly the same experience of lush singletrack, with some hot exposed climbs thrown in too. The trail flattens out shortly as you hike along the reservoir. Keep going past the dam and down a short and steep rocky section. Turn right onto the Coyote Ridge Trail, which starts your ascent back to the top of Fremont Older.

The Coyote Ridge Trail is all fire road, very steep, and dry. You are rewarded with more valley views when you top out on the ridge. Go along the ridge and turn left onto the Hayfield Trail and fly down this steep section back to the Cora Older Trail. Instead of turning left down to the parking lot, go straight through to the Creekside Trail where you'll get one last sample of shaded singletrack before you hit the road. Turn left on the road and shake it all out as you head to the parking lot.

There is a lot of Poison Oak to be found on the Lookout Trail and Tony Look Trail. Deer and coyote are common in Fremont Older.