If you live in or visit Los Gatos and enjoy hiking, biking, horseback riding, jogging, soccer (and other sports requiring playing fields) or other outdoor activities, you'll want to know about a Town of Los Gatos document, "Parks, Open Space, and Trails Inventory". It's a 70 page pdf with beautiful maps and photos of Los Gatos which you can download from the town's site.
This report on our athletic opportunities is very comprehensive and includes a discussion of not just public spaces and facilities, but semi-private & private as well - so fields at private schools are included, the new Jewish Community Center is included, etc. The document is a good mix of narrative, spreadshees or lists, photos, and maps, many of which are color-coded. A list of resources and helpful notes can be found at the end. It is useful whether you want to skim through it and find parks to explore or whether you're looking for a thorough list to plan out a future event.
The Youth Science Institute, which has facilities in Los Gatos at Vasona Lake County Park, in Saratoga at Sanborn Park, and in San Jose at Alum Rock Park, has met its campaign goal of $300,000 and will keep its doors open!
My husband, Jim Handy, created a map on Google with the trails of east Los Gatos showing. I thought it was well done and wanted to share it here - he was glad to have others enjoy the hiking opportunities and quickly agreed to let me post it here. Enjoy! (Unfortunately, this blogsite has some trouble with embedded Google maps, so what is below is just an image and not the interactive map itself. To see the actual map on G, please click here.)
At the end of Belgatos Road is Belgatos Park, and several trails originate here. Another good starting point is the new luxury home subdivision, Shannon Acres, which is at the intersection of Hicks and Shannon Roads in Los Gatos. Or, drive up to Santa Rosa and begin there. Please note that there is NO public parking at the top of Harwood Court. If you wish to have an easy hike, get someone to drive you to the park entrance on Harwood Court and walk downhill from there.
My family and I live in the east Los Gatos neighborhood called Belwood of Los Gatos, and the nearby park is Belgatos Park. We tend to visit it several times a week and spend a lot of time there. I confess, this isn't my first post about the park, but it is my first using video. (Recently I got a flip video so am learning how to work this new medium.)
This park is unique for a Town of Los Gatos park in many regards. First, it is one of the only parks in town which can accomodate horses, joggers and mountain bikers. (Joggers and mountain bikers, don't zone out! Horses may have gone before you.) Second, in addition to the niceties of a larger park, which include several grassy meadows, a playground, and a restroom, there are a myriad of trails that interconnect with Belgatos. If you are so inclined, you can spend hours chasing down the paths that wind through the Sierra Azule foothills. Finally, it is one of the only town parks which, with a little effort on the visitor's part, can provide stunning valley views.
With that introduction, I'll share with you some video clips I took recently. It's now the end of summer and Silicon Valley is dry and so are our parks. Below the video clip I will include other pics, from other seasons, of our beautiful Belgatos Park in Los Gatos.
And here's a slideshow of Belgatos Park done through Real Estate Shows. I took the photos of Belgatos Park in spring, so it's all very, very green and lush.
Proponents for the Skatepark in Los Gatos laid out a plan to build, fund and maintain one on Miles Avenue in downtown Los Gatos, but when it went before the voting public in Measure D, was not passed. In fact, Measure D, "the skatepark initiative", was defeated by a 2 to 1 margin.
But does that mean that Los Gatans don't want a skatepark at all?
Or did they just not want the particulars in Measure D?
This is an important question because there's money being held by the town for the skatepark.
If the town considers the skatepark a closed issue, I believe it could use those monies for other things, but I hope not. There's a lot of residual upset swirling around the skatepark vote, and I would maintain that although Measure D was defeated, the Los Gatos voters remain open to making a skatepark part of the town's services.
Let's be clear on something: squirrels, possums, skunks, racoons and other wildlife are not generally a problem in Los Gatos. Recently a mountain lion was seen on Cypress Way - and sometimes the big cats wander into suburbia. Those events constitute a problem. But by and large, the small furry animals that share our turf are not an issue.
I bring this up because I like to track who's finding "Live In Los Gatos", how they get here, what are the popular search terms, etc. It's all visible to you, too, if you are in the slightest bit interested. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and find the Site Meter button. Click on it. A whole world of info - probably much more than could possibly interest you - about how people find this spot lies in the pages beyond that portal.
What upset me today was seeing that one Google surfer found this site by asking about killing squirrels in Los Gatos. If you go through the Site Meter link and then look at the left sidebar where it says "Referrals" you will find one that reads as follows:
When I clicked on the Google search page, I saw that there seem to be aggressive squirrels in Palo Alto and people are thinking of extermination. Maybe it's beyond that and it's part of a plan. But as far as I know, there's NOTHING like that in Los Gatos.
That said, I just asked my husband, Jim Handy (who is a volunteer parks commissioner in Los Gatos) if there's anything about a plan to kill squirrels in Los Gatos. "No, but there's a problem with gophers at Oak Meadow Park", he informed me. What kind of problems? "Ankle turners..." Jim explained that people have been getting hurt tripping on gopher holes at the Town's Oak Meadow Park. Apparently there is a plan to poison gophers - at that one park.
It used to be against the law to use poison in parks in all cases. Apparently now, under heavy regulation, some use of poison is allowed. I can't say this makes me feel any better that it's a very guarded situation.
What about the historic but still timely Macabee Gopher Trap? It has been in production right here in Los Gatos for about a hundred years. Or perhaps it would be better if they would use a product like my old Saratoga High School friend Bob Bruno's "Gophernator" (or "Rodenator" since apparently it handles more than just gophers). Who ya gonna call?
Right at the border between Los Gatos and Campbell, the
county has an off-leash dog park - did you know? It's located
within the Los Gatos Creek County Park at 1250 Dell Avenue. It
features one fenced area for large dogs and another for small dogs,
plus pet-friendly water fountains and pooper scooper materials
(which are actually available at ALL Los Gatos parks). Call (408)
356-2729 for more information.
A blog about Los Gatos real estate, homes, houses, condos, townhomes, housing market, neightborhoods, history, events, businesses, parks, schools, photos, issues, and lifestyle.
Mary Pope-Handy
Realtor, CRS, ABR, SRES, E-PRO
Luxor Real Estate Group
Mailing Address for Mary: PO Box 440 Los Gatos, CA 95031-0440
877 397-5391 (office/toll-free)
Let's be clear on something: squirrels, possums, skunks, racoons and other wildlife are not generally a problem in Los Gatos. 
Right at the border between Los Gatos and Campbell, the
county has an off-leash dog park - did you know? It's located
within the Los Gatos Creek County Park at 1250 Dell Avenue. It
features one fenced area for large dogs and another for small dogs,
plus pet-friendly water fountains and pooper scooper materials
(which are actually available at ALL Los Gatos parks). Call (408)
356-2729 for more information.
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