Mount Umunhum sits high on the Santa Cruz Mountain range, and from there enjoys spectacular views. Looking inland, you can see San Jose & most of Santa Clara County, on a clear day even as far north as San Francisco from Mt. Umunhum. Turning toward the Pacific Ocean, from Mt. Umunhum’s heights you can see Santa Cruz and Monterey on a fogless day.

This magnificent land is now owned by the public, but there’s no public access yet. For some history and an explanation, take in this video from the Mid Peninsula Open Space Preserve:

Click the “more” link to continue reading…

This week’s San Jose Mercury News reports that progress is being made on the toxic cleanup of the former military base, and that we’re on track to have a usable park three years from now. It’s good to know that restoration of a healthy environment for people and wildlife is underway.

As I recall, another issue (not addressed in this news piece or on the Mid Peninsula Open Space Preserve page where the video was found) involves access and roads to the site itself. The roads leading to Mt. Umunhum are private, and the neighbors adjoining the roads didn’t want them to become public. A look else where on the Mid Peninsula Open Space Preserve site discusses the restricted access and private road issue. However it does not say how this will be resolved when the toxic cleanup is done.

Tags: access, almaden valley, cleanup, Los Gatos, Mt Umunhum, South San Jose

This entry was posted on Friday, May 21st, 2010 at 6:04 am and is filed under Almaden Valley (SJ), Los Gatos, Los Gatos Mountains, Silicon Valley. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.