Car Camping in Uvas Canyon

A week passes fast, especially when one swears off calendars for the week in question and attempts to divine what day it is based on the contents of one's refrigerator. For future reference, a half-gallon of milk, a head of lettuce, a cup of yogurt, three pieces of cheese, and eight slices of bread means it's Monday. It also means I'm having a cheese and lettuce sandwich for lunch.

When there was only a gallon of milk in the fridge (or two Fridays ago), we were car camping in Uvas Canyon County Park, located eight miles south of San Jose.

We arrived at the park that evening and easily found our designated campground, which was roughly a third of a mile from the entrance. Our group of ten occupied three of the park's thirty campsites.

Each site has enough parking for two cars. Each also has a picnic table, grill, and food locker. The campground has restrooms with running water, but no showers.

On this trip, we got to use our new tent. A while back, we thought it would be a good idea to have something roomier than our 2-person backpacking tent, so we invested in a 6-person tent that was on sale for $40 at a big box store.

Instead of focusing on the price, I should have paid attention to the dimensions. The tent is ten feet by twelve feet, nearly four times the size of the backpacking tent. It's six feet tall and comes with a dividing wall. I understand the deluxe version comes with bay windows, walk-in closets, indoor plumbing, and a loft.

Saturday morning was cold, but mostly clear. Because temperatures were expected to reach into the nineties, M and I wanted to hike as early as possible.

Although we knew there wouldn't be much water flowing, we hiked the Waterfall Loop Trail, a 1.5-mile loop that leads hikers past four waterfalls: Granuja, Upper, Basin, and Black Rock Falls. Only Granuja and Upper Falls were active.

The trail is somewhat steep, but well-shaded. It's also moist and well-populated with mosquitoes. Standing still to take photos was an open invitation to be swarmed and bitten. Bug repellant only made them meaner.

After we returned to the trail head, M went back to camp and I ventured to Knibbs Knob (elev. 2,694 feet), a steep 3.6-mile out-and-back hike. If I'm reading the contour map correctly, the trail climbs 1,400 feet over 1.8 miles. The trail is a fire road, which accounts for the steepness.

It took an hour to reach the summit. There wasn't much to see at the top, only a secluded picnic table.

It was on the trail leading to the Knob where one could soak in the incredible views of the green canyon and the valley beyond.

On the return trip, I ran most of the way down, figuring it was best not to fight gravity. The downhill trip took about twenty-five minutes.

It was warming up by the time I reached camp. I spent the rest of the day avoiding the heat, either reading or playing games I had never heard of before. I won once, but that was through clueless beginner's luck.

After dinner, we all played a rousing game of Pictionary, where I drew words like Saturday night, box of chocolates, and logo with varying degrees of failure.

On Sunday, our last day, I was the first one awake in camp. The morning was cold and foggy. Knowing everybody would be leaving after breakfast, I decided to do a quick hike to the old logging camp at the end of the Alec Canyon Trail.

The hike is a moderate 2.6-mile out-and-back trek. It's steep in sections, but not as steep as the trail to Knibbs Knob. The whole trip took less than an hour, and like the previous day's hike, I didn't encounter another soul along the way.

The end of the trail lacked any evidence of an old logging camp, which was rather disappointing. I had hoped to record how I explored and ran screaming from the dilapidated, haunted structures.

Back at camp, it didn't take long to break down the tent and pack the car. We left the park well before the designated 1:00 pm checkout time.

All in all, it wasn't a bad camping trip. If I stay there again, I'll go at the beginning of the year, when the weather is cooler and the waterfalls are at their fullest.