Top 5 Bike Parks in Santa Clara County

Make sure White Oak trail is open before you go.

The Hidden Springs Trail in Santa Teresa County Park is a favorite among mountain bikers seeking a challenging yet rewarding ride. This doubletrack loop winds through rolling hills and oak woodlands, with seasonal wildflowers. The trail ends with a steep half-mile climb leading to the Coyote Peak Trail. The path is rated as a blue-level trail with a black-diamond climb difficulty. It’s perfect for XC, gravel, AM, and adaptive MTB riders. Open to both directions and e-bikes (Class 1), it’s best enjoyed during early mornings or evenings to beat the heat.

The Hidden Springs Trail in Santa Teresa County Park offers a peaceful loop through rolling hills and oak woodlands. Perfect for trail runners, it features scenic views, seasonal wildflowers, and moderate climbs. Early mornings or evenings are ideal to avoid the heat and enjoy the quiet beauty of the landscape.

Jim Donnelly Trail (JDT) connects Hunting Hollow to Steer Ridge Road. Depending on the direction of travel you can look forward to a long uphill on smooth singletrack or a fun and flowy downhill.

Redtail Loop is the perfect beginner mountain bike trail. The trail is easy and not technical at all.

Except for two areas near the middle of the trail where a deep, rooty drop and nearby some gnarly eroded rocks force even experienced bikers to walk/carry their bike, Saratoga Gap Trail is a mostly sweet flowy singletrack along the Northeast side of Skyline ridge, paralleling the Skyline Road. This track marks the nifty connection to Skyline Road where the Saratoga Summit Ranger and Fire Station provides a delicious and possibly life-saving drinking water fountain ⛲ ! Good place to refill water and snack at the shady picnic table.

Saratoga Gap Trail has enough technical features to entertain any mountain biker. I wouldn't recommend this trail to a beginner.

White Oak Trail has been recently re-routed (completed in late 2010). Before this work, the upper reaches of this trail consisted of a steep, wide, and badly rutted "fire road". This segment of the trail is now replaced by a nicely meandering singletrack; initially exposed to the sky, and later under partial oak cover. The second half of the trail (the lower elevations) still follows the older path, which was a decent singletrack to begin with, and still is. I think that this change of White Oak Trail raises the desirability of Monte Bello Open Space for riders who are interested in singletrack trails. In my opinion, this brings this park to the same level as, say, the nearby Russian Ridge in terms of the level of biking trail quality. Before the White Oak Trail re-routing, I used to do this ride as a clockwise loop (and used to show it on this page in the same way), traversing White Oak Trail uphill. That was because I found White Oak too short, steep, and wide to be interesting for descent. (The ruts may have been an interesting descent challenge for some, but still...) I used to think that it was at least a good climbing challenge to test one's mettle. After the re-routing, I've changed this to a counter-clockwise loop, because the beautiful singletrack that's the newer White Oak Trail is much more fun to descend than to climb, in my opinion. The new White Oak Trail has some more off-camber spots than I would have expected from a new trail. Nothing too sketchy, but it does discourage you a little bit from speeding. When I come to think of it, the only other major singletrack trail in this park, Bella Vista Trail, also has quite a few off-camber sections. Perhaps it's something about erosion control. Or speed control. There's also at least one particular hairpin turn on White Oak that's a little over the top in its tightness. But maybe that's a good thing; those of us with superhuman bike control skills need some spots where they can test themselves as well. The last quarter mile of White Oak Trail (after crossing a minor tributary creek over a bridge) has you pedaling uphill at a moderate grade.