Click HERE to register for 2024
For one spectacular weekend this spring, Henry W. Coe State Park will open the gate at Bell's Station on Highway 152 east of Gilroy and allow registered attendees to drive along Kaiser-Aetna Road beyond the Dowdy Visitor Center.
The Coe Backcountry Weekend, held in the little-traveled east side of the 87,000-acre park is scheduled for April 26 - 28, 2024. The event is sponsored by the Pine Ridge Association and the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians have a unique opportunity to see and enjoy an area isolated from the park's Morgan Hill entrance by long distances and rugged terrain. The east side of the park has beautiful spring wildflowers, great fishing, and scenic trails, some with breathtaking panoramic views of the Diablo Range. The ridges and valleys are broader and easier to travel than the steep terrain in the western part of the park, and you can plan trips to areas that normally require several days of strenuous backpacking, places like Mississippi Lake and the Orestimba Wilderness.