Pacheco State Park

A gorgeous park with green rolling hills and rigerous hiking trails. I highly recommend this park.

Bathrooms are amazing! They are so clean! They must clean them every hour. Fishing is stupendous if you know what you’re doing. The fish cleaning station is always nice too. I’ll be back for more striper.

Have been going here for many years.
This is a great park for trail riding on horses.
It took a few «gos» to get a route we liked.
Some trails are more steep than we want to do — but the Salt Creek trail to Pig Pond and back is a good 2 hour ride.
Possible to see deer now and then.

I never stopped but driving through twice, this place is BEOOOTIFUL!

This hike is for the entire park that took us 2.5 hours to finish. Fairly easy 8 miles total.
The trees are a tip-​off that it gets mighty windy in Pacheco State Park. Squat, flag-​shaped oaks bow to the east, sculpted by the prevailing winds into picturesque poses. An even more obvious wind indicator than the stunted oaks are the multitude of wind turbines strategically placed on Pacheco’s ridges.
During the March through October «wind season,» Pacheco Pass is a veritable wind tunnel that whirls the propellers of nearly 200 windmills. Pacheco State Park earns a portion of the revenue from the 21 million kilowatts a year generated by the private utility that owns the windmills. Thanks to this revenue, Pacheco is a rarity in California’s impoverished state park system– a park that actually has adequate funds for its maintenance.
Although the total park area is 6,890 acres only the western 2,600 acres are open for public use at this time. The 28 miles of trails offer several loop options to give visitors the choice of a hike or ride of from one to twenty miles or more. Fees: $ 5 day use fee per vehicle.
NOTE: No Dogs allowed on the trails
Pacheco is located at an environmental crossroads of the coast range, Diablo Range and the San Joaquin Valley. Blue oaks and valley oaks dot the park’s grassy slopes. Botanists have counted some 15 species of native grasses in the park. Although Pacheco seems far removed from the coast, the Pacific plays a significant role in the area’s odd weather. An indentation in Monterey Bay that puts the Pacific only 50 miles as the gull flies from the park, the park’s location at a gap between mountain ranges, and strong westerly winds all combine to bring heavy coastal fog to the park during hot summer days.
Pacheco is a fairly dry park, though you might guess otherwise from the number of lakes depicted on the park map. Nun, Diamond, Bear’s Hide, Wolf, Dinosaur, Mammoth and many more lakes are actually tiny reservoirs, originally created to serve as cattle watering ponds.
Hikers frequently spot mule deer, ground squirrels, black-​tailed hares and feral pigs in the park. More elusive animals include badgers, skunks, gophers and voles (A vole is a small rodent resembling a mouse but with a stouter body, a shorter hairy tail, a slightly rounder head, smaller ears and eyes, and differently formed molars).

Even if you don’t feel like hiking around, the spectacular view of San Luis Reservoir, in and of itself, warrants a visit to Pacheco State Park. Note, however, that it can get pretty windy up here. So you may want to dress appropriately.

If you’re a fan of Native California landscapes and wildlife habitat then this is the park you need to go and check out. There are areas that have NOT been grazed by cattle for the past 6 years and are pristine reminders of what California used to look like before/​during the goldrush.
Native California grasses can be seen such as the California State Grass: Purple Needlegrass (Nassella pulchra). Wildflowers were just starting to bloom and many beautiful species were found at every turn! Along with the riparian habitat you can see pristine oak savannas on the park. We sighted so much wildlife it was unbelievable — and not just mammals, but reptiles and amphibians as well.
HUNTING IS NOT ALLOWED AT THIS PARK if you try it they will confiscate ALL your gear and catch you with the monitoring equipment.

average park to go hiking.

We went back to Pacheco SP on Sat 11÷7÷09. Driving from Fremont to the park takes 1hr 25 min. Parking is still $ 5 self registering so bring exact change, $ 1 less if you have someone 62yrs+ with you.
We did maybe 9mi or so.
Trails we did — loop hike:
Spikes Peak — there’s a cool sign by the tree there
Canyon Loop East
Dinosaur Lake
Saw:
Mammoth Lake
Dinosaur Lake
tons of Windmills
Best to go in the Fall (cooler weather) & Spring (lots of wildflowers).
Website:
Visited: 3

Well, if you have a horse you might have more fun than I did. Still, I found the historic aeromotor windmill and the Line Cabin interesting.

I remember back in the day when this was a field trip in school. Not much happening up here except looking at the reservoir and if you’re lucky you’ll see the people that street luge on Dinosaur Point.