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Joseph D. Grant County Park is the largest
Santa Clara County regional park and has 52 miles of trails. The park is
nestled in the Diablo Range foothills and you take the Mt. Hamilton Road to get
to it.
The park has a short paved whole access trail
that is very scenic. There is also a longer paved trail nearby that has a
meadow on one side and a picnic area on the other.
For those wanting to hike an intermediate level
trail, you have the Bernal Trail and the Hotel Trail.
You access the Bernal Trail from a small parking
lot just beyond where you turn into the main park area, and it has one
accesssible parking spot. The
beginning of the 0.4 mile trail has around a 7% slope, but after that it’s
pretty flat. The trail itself is a
mixture of dirt and rocks. I
really like this trail because it gives you a beautiful view of Grant Lake.
The Hotel Trail is near the whole access trail.
There is a 7% slope getting to the trail but after that, the trail is fairly
flat. The 3.4 mile trail is mostly
made up of hard packed dirt, which during the summer the trail can become very
dusty. So much so, that one time I had to turn back - dust isn't good for
ventilators. But, I've gone in the
spring and fall and there was less amount of dust in the air during those
times. I really enjoyed wheelchair hiking this trail because of the panoramic
beauty of the rolling hills. Plus,
there aren't that many wheelchair accessible trails that are this long.
To see more of Joseph D. Grant County Park,
please watch my video.