If you arrived into Silicon Valley via Highway 101, driving south from San Francisco, you might believe that the Santa Clara Valley, the San Jose area and Silicon Valley as a whole has got to seem to be the ugliest place on earth. Although heavily traveled, that is not the “scenic route”.

So, too, if you are looking for a place to live and are groping to find a place that is reasonably priced, fairly safe and not a terrible commute distance. You might not even have “is nice looking” on your wish list. You might not think it’s possible if all you ever see are the ugly concrete tilt-up buildings in north San Jose, Santa Clara, Alviso, or anywhere along the 237 corridor.  That area is an architectural wasteland.

Let me assure you: there are a lot of beautiful places in Silicon Valley where you can rent or buy a home. But how do you find them? It helps a lot to have a local give you a few pointers.  I’ll give you some tips today on finding a scenic place to live.

Hills – An easy way to find a scenic location to make your home is to settle near the hills, especially those in the west valley (the Santa Cruz Mountains or the Coastal Range) as they are green year-round. Communities at the base of the west valley foothills include, in Santa Clara County, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Cupertino, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, and the Almaden Valley area of San Jose. All of these areas are adjacent to the hills or mountains and offer far better than average schools (many of them qualify as great – compare costs between these areas).

Of course, if you go into the hills instead of just being near the base of them, there will be valley views as well.  If you go to the summit area of the Santa Cruz Mountains, you could really luck out and get a 360 degree view of the Monterey Bay on one side and the valley and San Francisco Bay on the other.  (But that would not likely be a short commute to most of Silicon Valley.)

In San Mateo County, there’s Menlo Park, Redwood City, Belmont, Hillsborough…most of these communities are more scenic as you go closer into the hills. Some even offer a view of the San Francisco Bay.

In the east foothills of San Jose, there are many lovely areas too. Among my favorite are the old section of Alum Rock (with beautiful Spanish style houses up near the country club), some of the rural areas of the Berryessa district in San Jose and the southern part of Evergreen (near Silver Creek and the Villages).

Other hills and knolls - the coastal range and east foothills aren’t the only areas with a higher elevation and views.  Think of the Santa Teresa Foothills Blossom Valley, Santa Teresa areas), Communication Hill (Blossom Valley, Willow Glen), or the occasional small little hill such as Lone Hill in the Cambrian district of San Jose.  You don’t have to get very high up to have a great view.  Look at the terrain maps for small elevations and check those areas out!

Waterways - In addition to the mountains, there are many scenic spots in Silicon Valley alongside rivers, creeks and streams.  When I was a newlywed (back in 1985), my husband and I lived alongside Stevens Creek – that is, the waterway, not the major road – in Sunnyvale.  The apartment complex had a number of units overlooking the creek and there were tons of trees providing a great, green view.  You can check out that apartment complex online – it’s called Brookside Oaks.

Back to the bayfront housing:  you can get waterfront homes in Redwood Shores and Foster City, which are on the north end of “Silicon Valley” on the Peninsula.  Many of those areas are on landfill, and although well compacted, that fill is sitting on old bay mud.  Some structures in those areas have had problem with an undue amount of movement.  Others have had salt water get to their foundations, which can cause the re-bar inside to rust (making the foundation far less strong).  Both communities are super clean and attractive (I have sold homes in both).

Not quite Silicon Valley, Santa Cruz does offer many really lovely places in which to live too – great views from many spots.  Adjacent to Neary’s Lagoon there are apartments, townhouses (some of which are for rent) and low income housing too.  It’s a very scenic part of Santa Cruz and just about a mile from the beach on foot.  A few high rise buildings, such as the condo complex on Broadway, feature views of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and the Monterey Bay.

Flatlands – not to worry if you strike out with the hills and waterways.  There are still many lovely areas in Silicon Valley that are not included in those areas.  One is the beautiful San Jose neighborhood known as The Rosegarden. It is centrally located, with a great wide open space at the park, and loads of lovely older homes with tons of character.

If you enjoy classic architecture, you might check out a few areas closer to downtown San Jose: Naglee Park, Vendome area and Japantown.

Outside of San Jose, there are scenic urban living or downtown areas in the Willow Glen part of San Jose, downtown Campbell, downtown Saratoga, downtown Los Gatos, downtown Mountain View, downtown Menlo Park, downtown San Mateo, downtown Los Altos and of course the great magnet of them all, downtown Palo Alto.

In some of these places, the downtown area is also right up against the hills – and that is truly beautiful!  (Think Los Gatos, Saratoga, Los Altos, Menlo Park.)  One nice townhome community in Saratoga has both green views within the complex, is right next to the coastal foothills and is just steps away from downtown Saratoga.  The area has top rated schools too.  If interested, check out Saratoga Oaks.) And don’t miss either Japantown or Santana Row for urban living!

Silicon Valley has a number of neighborhoods with great ambiance despite the absence of either hills or a quaint downtown.  Santa Clara’s “old quad” neighborhood (located near Santa Clara University) is just such a spot.

And, of course, there are spots in Santa Clara County with stunning golf courses, parks or heavily wooded or open areas that may not belong to the public but which create lovely vistas nonetheless.  A few orchards still dot Sunnyvale, San Jose, Saratoga and other parts of the valley. (New townhouses on Bersano Lane in Los Gatos are on a hill overlooking Lake Vasona. Beautiful views!)

For scenic senior housing, a retirement home or residential care facility for the elderly (which can mean independent living, assisted living, nursing or other), quite a few spots enjoy scenic views also:  Belmont Village in San Jose looks out over Santana Row on one side and the Winchester House on another; the Atrium in San Jose’s Blossom Valley has views of Mt. Umunhum; Saratoga Retirement Community enjoys a lovely campus but also is in among gently rolling hills and has a view of the Santa Cruz Mountains; the Villages in San Jose’s eastside community of Evergreen sits among lovely rolling hills and a golf course in the middle.

Many people relocating to the San Francisco Peninsula or the South Bay come from areas where homes cost half as much and seem to be twice as big, where there may not be so much congestion and where there is more open space.  We do have places like that, but it’s important to let whoever’s helping you know that this is important.    Whether you’re here to rent an apartment or purchase a townhouse or condo, it can be in a scenic place.  You just need to find them!

Along the Los Gatos Creek Trail in Los Gatos, Campbell and San Jose, there’s an 80 acre park called the Los Gatos Creek County Park.  This long park includes six percolation ponds, which look a bit like square or rectangular ponds with gravel along the edges.  I passed by one yesterday in Campbell along Budd Avenue near San Tomas Expressway.  It was a pretty sight with the Santa Cruz Mountains in the background.  (This view is looking south toward Los Gatos and toward Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay beyond the coastal foothills.)

Perhaps you have seen them and wondered what their purpose is?  The series of ponds and waterways enables the rainwater runoff to be filtered and placed back into the underground waterway system, which we refer to as aquifers.  (The Unites States has a number of very large aquifers throughout the country, and the biggest one in California is the Central Valley Aquifer.)

Groundwater levels in the Santa Clara Valley can rise and fall, if left to its own devices, based on the amount of rainfall in any given year.  Willow Glen, a charming part of San Jose, originally was a bit of a marsh when it was first settled by non-natives.  The water which was indiginous to the area continued to flow below the surface, though. 

As you know, if you live in Silicon Valley, we have drought years and El Nino (wet) years in addition to our “normal” amount of rainfall, which is 15″ to 25″ a year or so.

In dry years, the amount of groundwater can lessen.  The aquifers can collapse a bit – the ground inches downward.  In wet years, the aquifers can fill.  Our soil is mostly clay here too.  When wet, clay soil expands and is typically referred to as “expansive soils”.  When dry, it contracts.  So the ground was rising and falling due to the presence and quantity of water underneath.

For homes built over the aquifers, the rising and falling and expanding and contracting can wreack havoc on the foundation. 

The historic part of downtown Willow Glen is perhaps the best known area for foundation problems in Santa Clara County – the older homes in place prior to the percolation ponds suffered due to the flux of the soil.  The other day I showed a home that was classic in that regard: the floor rolled extensively, the outside of the home had a tremendous number of cracks and even the windows belied the apparent foundation problem. I took the following photo earlier this week of a window in that home.

The percolation ponds and the whole reclamation system recharges our groundwater, which in turn helps to keep the aquifers full so that the ground doesn’t rise & fall to such a serious degree depending on our rainfall that year.   The damage in Willow Glen and other places in San Jose can help to be prevented by this system.   So there’s a really important function behind these squarish looking ponds! (Of course there are many causes of soil instability and this solution does not address many of them. Speak with a licensed civil or soils engineer if you have questions about your property.)

The Santa Clara Valley Water District permits some recreational fishing at one of the ponds, by the way.  It’s stocked with Rainbow Trout and includes other fish too.  Water fowl are visible at all the ponds, but don’t feed the birds as that’s prohibited so that they will migrate as they should do.  (At the Budd Avenue pond there was a sign up stating that there are herding dogs hired to startle non-migrating birds to get them on their way as nature intended too!)

If you’ve never visited the Los Gatos Creek County Park, this makes for a good outing for adults and kids.  Field trips can be arranged and there are other educational opportunities available also.

Want more info on the history of water in the Santa Clara Valley? The Santa Clara Valley Water District has a timeline that includes key events. Check it out!

San Jose’s Almaden Valley offers a great deal of scenic beauty, much of it enjoyable on foot or by bicycle.  The Alamitos Creek Trail also includes a hint of the region’s past.  Recently I took some photos of the Pfeiffer Stone House, a storage shed for the Goodrich’s Free Stone Quarry that was built around 1875.

You’ll find this curious bit of history at the corner of Graystone Lane and Pfeiffer Ranch Road, along the Alamitos Creek Trail.

View Pfeiffer Stone House in a larger map

This is water district land and the stone hut sits behind a chain link fence together with a plaque put up by the Mountain Charlie Chapter of E Clampus Vitus.

The creek is to the right of this photo, and the Graystone area is off to the left. (To see a few more photos, please click on the link below.)

The plaque is unfortunately a little hard to read with the chain link fence, but it explains the purpose of the stone house as being storage of food and tools for the Goodrich Quarry.

I could get all of it in one shot, unfortunately.

The plaque states that the Goodrich Quarry provided the brownstone used for the Hall of Justice, Post Office, St. Mary’s Church original buildings (I believe it means the original Jesuit mission in Los Gatos – the current St. Mary’s building in Los Gatos is a block or so away from that first site), buildings of Stanford University & the Carson City Mine. 

Just found this fabulous 18 minute video online, Valley of Heart’s Delight, complete with an embed code so that it can be shared. I hope you enjoy it! Apprently it’s a 1948 remake of a 1925 look into Santa Clara County’s agricultural industry of days gone by. Interesting images of the orchards, blossoms, San Jose neighborhoods, Moffett Field, Santa Clara University & Mission, San Jose State, Stanford University, and business of yesteryear. It is much like a promotional video, showing current day Silicon Valley in its most flattering light.

Images and audio include:

Orchards
hillside views
downtown San Jose
Alum Rock Park (with a pool!)
Mt Madonna
The Rosegarden
Mission Santa Clara
Santa Clara University
San Jose State University
Stanford University
Santa Cruz Beach

The other day I was hunting for local maps of Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) dating back 100 years or so, and although I didn’t find exactly what I wanted, I did find a treasure trove that I hadn’t expected to find at all.

Here please find a tiny snippet of a USGS Map from the late 1890s (actually part of the Palo Alto Map). According to my husband, who has a hobby of viewing and collecting maps, each “dot” on this image represents a house. If that is the case, you can see how sparcely populated Saratoga and Cupertino were at this time.

And what is that Azule Springs? Was it another hot springs type resort, like Saratoga Springs? A map like this raises a lot of questions!

If you love – or at least enjoy – history, I invite you to visit the USGS website and look at the historic maps there. One section includes Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino and the coastal areas such as Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. Another section of the map includes Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Campbell, Almaden, Cambrian Park, Santa Clara and many parts of San Jose. 

It’s fun to see where things “used to be” and how they “used to be called”. Take a few minutes and enjoy!

Did you ever wonder what “Milpitas” means, or the background on “Holy City”? John Casey, a Santa Clara resident, has compiled an interesting bit of local history on John’s Silicon Valley Page. It’s actually two pages of Santa Clara County place name trivia, covering some of the mountains, roads, creeks and changed names in and around San Jose. Enjoy!

The city of Campbell, California,  was founded by Benjamin Campbell and local history of the region as “Campbell” goes back over 150 years. His first land purchase there occurred in 1851, and he planted it with grain and hay. This was a busy place during the orchard and fruit canning eras of the valley; it boasted three canneries in what is now the city of Campbell. Situated perfectly along the railroad line to Los Gatos, the Campbell area became a shipping center for the prized produce of The Valley of Hearts Delight.

Interestingly, while the city’s origins go back to the orchard era, Campbell was not incorporated until 1952. As with many other incorporations in Santa Clara County at that time, it was largely as a defensive maneuver against being swallowed up by the fast growing city of San Jose.

Today Campbell has a small town feel while offering a quaint downtown area, good schools, and more affordably  priced homes (for our valley, anyway). Crime is low and there’s great community spirit. Downtown Campbell is a destination for many with some excellent restaurants, shops, art galleries and museums. Campbell is also home to several excellent parks and movie theaters and recently became tied in to the light rail system too, making it not just a great place to live, but also a great location for businesses who want to be more “green” and give its employees a better shot at using public transit.

See more articles on Campbell within this blog – the Campbell real estate market, events, photos and much more.

For more information about Campbell, visit the city’s official website at http://www.ci.campbell.ca.us.