NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Summary

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Nestled in the hills of Los Gatos, CA lays this little gem. Hiking trails offer views of the South Bay. The villa sits atop a lovely green, complete with sculptures and an Italian garden.

Trail Stats

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Trail Details

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This day began half heartedly. I’m tired and do not feel like dealing with people. California is brimming with people. Sigh. But getting out always clears my head and refreshes my mood and soul.

We arrived in CA last evening, bringing Lucille along on her first “big” adventure. To be fair, she did great. Was a champ on both flights and minded herself nicely in the airports. In the car she’s still a holy terror hell bent on escaping her confines, otherwise known as one very overpriced cat carrier. In the car she cannot and will not settle down. But we arrived to our hotel unscathed. She fairly quickly settled into her new surroundings.

Sleep was never an option. Fate was against us. For one, I never sleep great the first night in a new place. Two, we ordered Thai take out, and we ate it ALL. Hello overly stuffed belly. Three, the pillows were weird. Four, the temperature was hard to control and every time the AC unit came to life it was loud. Five, apparently Bigfoot took the room above us. Stomp, stomp, stomp. And he or she got up at least three times in the night. Lastly, Lucille was up and about all night. She’d settle in by my side and then somewhere a door would slam and nope! Upright and back off the bed, cutting a path directly across my throat. And night time is the best for kitty exploration. I think she now knows every nook and cranny. Certainly if there was some nasty crumb left anywhere she happily found it.

When morning came I was not feeling it. The weather forecast predicted off and on rain. The whole area has been under a deluge of rain lately. And CA can’t really handle rain. Things wash out and flood. I did not care to drive an hour out to possibly be rained out of a hike. And Lucille could use a more chill day. Currently she’s passed out cold on the bed, snuggling her new toy that she refused to play with.

However, I also know that I’ll go crazy staying in a hotel room all day. That is not an option. So, after dropping Doug off (work trip for him!) I headed out to Saratoga. Only got diverted off course once due to road clean up. Not bad.

Amazingly, Villa Montalvo County Park is free to enter. If you want to tour the buildings and Villa you must schedule a tour. Being with a cat I didn’t even bother and stuck to the walking and hiking trails.

Hikers are to use parking lot 4, which conveniently puts you directly onto the beginning of Lookout trail. There is a flush toilet here if needed! These trails all seem to intersect and loop around. I did just about all of them and found it quite peaceful minus a few rather loud groups that reminded me of a gaggle of chickens in high excitement.

Picking up a map I headed uphill, passing the small Belvedere Temple that’s at the end of parking lot 3. This was probably the muddiest section of the entire trail. Also, surprisingly steep considering I seemed to think it was more of a wandering through the woods than anything else. I headed straight to Lookout Point, which is touted to have a fabulous view of the South Bay. Can’t say that I noticed all that but, it was clouded over on the horizon. It does offer a sweeping view of the local area.

Overall the trails provided a pleasant walk through forested grounds. The redwoods and oaks were my favorite. Hard to beat how spectacular they are, especially the sprawling branches of the latter. Occasionally there were inspirational placards reminding you to be present in the here and now instead of merely passing through. At one point I passed resident artists housing, though I never saw the artists who, presumably, were busy elsewhere in their craft.

On Orchard Trail (connects to Lookout Trail) there was one water crossing. Not sure it’s normally there but it did require a little rock hopping to cross with dry feet. I do not possess much in the grace department, I trend more to flailing arms and narrowly avoiding falling in. Today I managed to maintain dry feet. For all other creek crossings a bridge was furnished.

After making my way through the hillside trails I wanted to visit the sculptures and Italian Garden. There’s a path along the great lawn from the Villa where a few sculptures are placed, leading to the Garden. With a little imagination I can see how resplendent it will be in spring and summer. Being early February the garden was a tad wilted. Toward the far side of the garden stands the Love Temple. It’s quite lovely from afar, a path bedecked by cypress trees leading to the temple with its white columns regally standing tall. The sculpture within is terrifying. Truly. Just look at the grotesque faces. Mouths open with tongues thrust forward and furrowed brows. Four men’s torso’s hold up a bowl to a fountain. Hard pass on the creepy dudes. But I can relate to them on the furrowed brow thing, that is permanently featured on my face as well. Ironically, I get that lovely trait from the Italian side of my family.

I found my little trip out to Vill Montalvo quite pleasant. The gardens and sculptures offer a change of pace from my normal more natural hiking trails and provide their own beauty. Even better, it never did rain.

While I enjoyed my time out I can’t say the same for Lucille. She was grumpy from the previous day. When we arrived back to the hotel she took a nap at my side for a good 45 minutes and was rather disgruntled when I disentangled myself from her clutches. She’s a trooper even with the bad attitude.

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