Alum Rock Falls Rd, California

Alum Rock Falls Road is essentially the spine of Alum Rock Park, one of San Jose's finest. For some reason, the East Foothills don't get as much credit as the West Foothills, but this park alone is sheer redemption for the unspoken neighborhood. Hiking trails are aplently, and extend into some of the regional open spaces. Mountain bikers are not uncommon here, although the trails are of a moderate grade and appear to be pretty user-friendly.

The park is also outfitted with a visitor center, a science center, plenty of public restrooms and running water. There is a beautiful stream that balances out the scorching, sun-exposed foothills, which can be hot twelve out of the twelve months a year.

Given that the park is adjacent to both the eastern foothills and East San Jose (one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bay Area), the crowd here is very diverse. Fortunately, "crowd" is a term used loosely, as congestion here is minimal. Parking lots may be half full at best on a nice weekend day. Interestingly, there is a station outside of the park entrance that offers free parking, an easy way to bypass the $6 entry fee, but the lot fills so fast that you will often see cars sitting here and waiting for someone to leave.

Frankly, I think $6 is a small price to pay for what you get here.

Alum Rock Falls Road in San Jose, California was recommended to me as a pretty scenic road to travel to get relief from the hustle and bustle of the city. This road was a dirt road with nothing but huge beautiful trees in the middle of no where. It twisted and turned every which way and at some points the area would clear and then the road would switch to a paved road and there would very few houses. This was as country as you could get. We passed by a reservoir called Cherry Flat and then went through a lot more twists and turns and finally came to Alum Rock Park which was like something I have never seen before. It had many trails you could walk on and a lot of what they called boulders but, being from Florida, I called them mountains. This would be a nice road to build a house on but you have to remember you will be in the middle of no where. The road finally ended with a fork in the road. This is also a nice scenic road but make sure you have a few hours to spend.