Wood Road Trail in Almaden Quicksilver County Park (Spring)

by Dani Christensen

The Wood Road entrance is a quiet, less-trafficked entrance to the expansive Almaden Quicksilver County Park. This short out-and-back trail is wide and mostly shaded by blue oaks, live oaks, madrones, and bay laurels, until you emerge into open chaparral. Come here to enjoy a peaceful morning in this gorgeous California native habitat and look for iconic residents and spring migrants. This out-and-back trip on the Wood Rd Trail is about 3 miles long on a flat gravel trail with a couple of small hills, with the option to shorten the trip by half if you wish to remain in the shade. As usual, I recommend getting here early to beat the heat.

Trip Covers: April - June

Key Birds: Steller’s Jay, Wrentit, California Thrasher, Black-throated Gray Warbler

How to Bird

Start out in the parking lot, where a small meadow (1 on interactive map) near the trailhead often has foraging sparrows such as Dark-eyed Juncos, and lingering crowned sparrows of winter such as White-crowned and Golden-crowned. Scan the skies for Band-tailed Pigeons, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, and Turkey Vultures. My favorite, the Steller’s Jay, can be seen and heard here too, often mimicking the scream of a hawk. Before heading out on the trail, check out a short trail marked Bay Area Ridge Trail Access Trail (2 on interactive map) on the opposite corner of the parking lot from the Wood Rd Trailhead. This trail leads to a small shady meadow where you can look for Wilson’s Warblers and Bushtits in the coyote brush or Wild Turkeys under the black oaks.

Wood Road Trail, Almaden Quicksilver County Park. Photo: Dani Christensen

Dappled shade under bay laurel and live oak trees. Photo: Dani Christensen

Come back to the Wood Rd trailhead (3 on map) and head up the gravel trail. Be on the lookout for the usual oak woodland species such as Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Oak Titmice, California Quail, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, and White-Breasted Nuthatch. Listen in the thickets for Spotted and California Towhees scratching for morsels under the shade of manzanitas and poison oak. Not many birds eat the hard manzanita berries, but chipmunks love them, and you may hear a Merriam’s chipmunk or two, chirping away from inside a shrub. Related to manzanita, the Pacific Madrone is a fantastic tree with brilliant red-orange peeling bark and bright green evergreen leaves. Many birds such as American Robins, Cedar Waxwings, and Band-tailed Pigeons enjoy eating the fleshy red berries.

Field Trip Leader Laura looking at a Pacific Madrone tree on the Wood Rd Trail. Photo: Dani Christensen

Spring migration is a special time to look for warblers, as we have breeding birds arriving from their wintering grounds, summer visitors just arriving, and some just passing through. Black-throated Gray Warblers are ones that breed here arriving about April from their wintering grounds in Mexico. Look for them high in the treetops. Orange-crowned, Wilson’s, and Yellow Warblers breed here too, but are often seen passing though in greater numbers during migration. Lingering wintering warblers to look out for include Townsend’s and Yellow-rumped. Check out SCVAS Executive Director Matthew Dodder’s very informative Fall Warbler series on YouTube for more on these birds, the first of which is here.

After about ¾ mi, you will come out of the dense oak-madrone woodland into exposed chaparral (4 on map). If you find yourself wishing to avoid the sun, here is a good place to turn around. Continue on to look for classic scrub species such as California Thrasher, Wrentit, Anna’s Hummingbird, and California Scrub-Jays. You can even find pairs of Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers foraging near the tips of dense vegetation. Out in the clearings, look for late swallows, soaring raptors, or families of Western Bluebirds foraging.

Looking west at Mount Umunhum (Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve), chamise and sage lining the trail. Photo: Dani Christensen

After almost 1½ miles, the Wood Rd trail ends at a historic Rotary Furnace (5 on map) used for mercury extraction until 1976. Check out the interpretive signs here before turning around and heading back down the trail. As summer turns to fall, I hope you can get out to watch the landscape and the birds change!

Ready for More?

If you’d like to extend this trip to about 5 miles round trip, you can continue past the old furnace to connect to the Mine Hill trail. See the park trail map here to plan your hike. For a more aerobic hike, you can also explore the Mount Umunhum Area of Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve (map here), which is just across the road on Mt Umunhum Road.

Interactive Map

Directions: From CA-85 in San Jose, exit Camden Ave. Continue south on Camden Ave for approximately 1.7 miles, then turn right onto Hicks Road and continue for another 6 miles. At the intersection of Mt Umunhum Rd and Hicks Rd, which is a 4-way stop sign, turn left into the parking area. Latitude/Longitude: 37.175410, -121.862181

Parking: Large gravel parking lot

Fees: None

Park Hours: 8:00 a.m. until sunset

Facilities: None. Nearest facilities are at the Mt Umunhum Rd and Hicks Rd intersection in the Sierra Azul parking lot

Trip Mileage: 1.5 miles round trip with options for longer trips, easy to shorten

Trail Conditions: Gravel trail, a couple of small hills, mostly shaded.

Bikes: Allowed

Dogs: Allowed on 6 ft leash

More Information

Almaden Quicksilver Trail Map
eBird hotspot: Almaden Quicksilver CP
BirdGuy with SCVAS Executive Director Matthew Dodder Video 18: Fall Warblers 1
For more information on the history of this location, watch this episode of California Gold or view this historic trail guide.

More Resources

For more trips like this one, visit Self-guided Field Trips.
Visit the SCVAS Birding Resources page for more information on where to bird, our birding community, birding identification resources, and more.
Read “What to Look for Now” by SCVAS Executive Director Matthew Dodder.

Banner Photo Credit: Orange-crowned Warbler by Luis Villablanca

Last Updated: 07/24/2022

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