Completed: May 28, 2023 | Elevation: Church Hill – 1,450′, Mine Hill – 1,728 | Trail: Mine Hill > English Camp > Castillero > Deep Gulch Loop | Distance: 4.2 miles
We kicked off our grand hiking tour of the South Bay by summiting two peaks located in Almaden Quicksilver County Park: Church Hill and Mine Hill.
From the Hacienda entrance parking lot, we headed out on the wide multi-use path, part of Mine Hill Trail, near the restroom and walked 0.4 miles until the first junction. A sharp left took us to English Camp Trail, which wasn’t signed but couldn’t have been anything else based on the map. It was a continuous uphill climb on the exposed trail for about a mile. Thank goodness for the cloud cover.
Past the intersection with Deep Gulch Trail we approached a lovely section bordered by yellow flowers that had a smell reminiscent of jasmine, and striking purple ones. Within minutes found ourselves on level ground right next to the picnic tables. We had arrived at English Camp.
We headed to Church Hill first, so veered right and walked along a narrow path that headed up a low hill. At the end we found an old chimney, and upon consulting the map and AllTrails realized we weren’t actually at Church Hill. Instead, the trail to Church Hill was on the right-hand side just before reaching the mining office building. It was no wonder we missed it. It’s quite overgrown and there are no signs.
Following the trail, we felt like it was taking us to some secret location that few people knew about. Going farther back into the woods, we eventually came upon a prominence that had remnants of stone structures. AllTrails marked this as the summit of Church Hill.
From here we turned back and continued our hike to Mine Hill, following Castillero Trail which had some lovely shade and expansive views of the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve, including Mt. Umunhum and Bald Mountain, both of which we had hiked earlier in the year.
The spur trail to Mine Hill eventually dead-ended in a large, round clearing that had been leveled. It looked like they were getting ready to build something here. The area was ringed by a hill on one side and we figured the summit of Mine Hill had to be up there. Unfortunately, there was no clear trail so we clambered our way up a rocky section to reach the top. We found a pile of rocks, possibly marking the peak.
On our way back down, we took Deep Gulch Trail instead and found it to be much more shaded. It’s a narrower path, paralleling the creek below. Going down was fast and we were at the car around 12:45.
We had a little over an hour before we needed to be in Uvas Canyon County Park, our next destination, where we had a timed entry between 2:00 – 3:00. It was plenty of time for us grab sandwiches and make the 30-minute drive south to hike our next peak: Knibbs Knob.
Find an overview of our grand hike of the South Bay Nifty Nineties here.
Follow our progress bagging the Bay Area’s Nifty Ninety here.
Coda
This is the route we hiked:
While there was a lot of uphill, it was not a difficult hike. It had a gradual elevation gain, and Chris, who forgot his hiking shoes, was able to complete this hike in his Keen sandals. The cloudy conditions also made a world of difference. Neither of us had been to this park (a reoccurring theme for, particularly for the South Bay ones) and it was fun to explore it’s mining history. When we exited the Deep Gulch Trail, which is near the overflow lot, we stopped to peruse an outdoor exhibit of old mining equipment that had been found here. Realistically, we will probably never come down here again but all the more reason to do Nifty Ninety Peaks and see everything at least once.