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Sanborn County Park
Categories: Active Life Parks Active Life Hiking Hotels & Travel Campgrounds Parks, Hiking, Campgrounds [Edit]
16055 Sanborn RdSaratoga, CA 95070
(408) 867-9959
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
20 reviews for Sanborn County Park
20 reviews in English
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Review from Linda J.
San Jose, CA
1/4/2012
great park went here and hiked up to skyline on the san andreas trail Christmas day.7 hours of hiking was a great day spent.
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Review from George L.
Saratoga, CA
1/9/2012
Sanborn Park is a place where I go if i want to hike some somewhat technical trails near me. It's not hard to the point where it's unbearable, but not as easy as a walk around town.
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Review from Esther S.
8/8/2011
Came here late afternoon- the $6 really sucks
Nice very manicured grounds with a huge downward sloping grass area. Wanted to walk around the trails but they were either hard to find or blocked off by the Shakesphere stage they had set up.
Looked like it could be a nice place to go....minus that $6 parking fee! Boo!Listed in: For a Good Time, Out and About
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Review from Alena B.
7/6/2011
This place is great for kids...especially on a hot day. The trails near the entrance are easily accessible from the parking lot and are easy for toddler's legs to handle. We had a great time! There's a huge tree that you can play in and cute little bridges to cross. It's nice and super easy. On hot days the redwoods keep this place a lovely temperature...I haven't been to the campground area but I loved the actual Park.
parking costs $6 which is standard for a county park. WARNING...my 2 year old did come home with a tick on his arm. GROSS. There's less poison oak here than on other trails in the area, but wear long pants and check yourself well when you leave! -
Review from Anna D.
San Jose, CA
7/18/2011
Trails are not bad, but I prefer the San Antonio trails because I get a more outdoorsy feel there.
NOTE: bring lots of bug spray!! -
Review from Jen H.
7/11/2010
Compared to Mission Peak, this place is great!!!!
For summer days, this place is great to hike because there are so many redwood trees along the trail. About 70% shade. Mission peak was about 5% shade, NOT GOOD.
We went a couple of days ago, and the elevation varies, which was nice. We had to cross a VERY small stream by stepping on the pebbles. As we were hiking, there were camp grounds to our left and right, not a bad place to camp actually!
Will be back soon! -
Review from milo a.
Berkeley, CA
11/21/2010
The talk about the steep hill to the camp ground is correct, that hill is a bi-otch. The walk up the hill empty-handed or with a small pack isn't bad at all...steep but reasonable The issue is lugging your gear up the hill.
It's real work going uphill with gear approximately 1/2 a mile. The park provides hand carts and they definitely help but it's not fun. The more crap you have, the more work...so pack light. If you can get everything in one cart, I think you'll be happy.
Despite the hill, the camping experience is pleasant. Old growth redwoods and major canopy, hard to beat. The restriction on cars in the campsite is a big plus. There's less noise, safer for people to walk and kids to run around. Without cars around, nature seems closer.
A couple of minuses: the camp sites are small and not every site is level. 2 nights no biggie...more then that and the not level sleeping would be an issue.
The lower park with the picnic area and grove of redwoods are quite nice. The meadow is lush with nice shade trees. Overall a well-design place which provide nice picnic areas while preserving the nature in the campground and trail. Very well thought out. -
Review from Michelle C.
Belmont, CA
7/19/2009
Where do I start with Sanborn??? Ok so as you've may noticed that people have complained about a "steep" hill. Well they aren't lying. If you reserve a camp site above #10, you in for a very hard hike into your camp site. Where as if you choose from #1-10 you are in the safe zone, not as hard.
Showers are out near the parking lot. .50c for 5 minutes of hot or cold water. Tons of trees and birds all over the place. At dusk you can catch some bunnies come out to graze in the meadow grass. I also saw some deer in the meadow.
Now back to the camp sites. The pros if you are agile and can make it up and down the hill. The higher numbered camp sites give you much privacy and pretty landscapes. At the lower levels, you get a sense of community amongst your fellow campers. I had a great time camping here and can't wait to go back. -
Review from Monty H.
San Jose, CA
8/17/2008
Well... Well... Well... Where does one begin when describing the tent campgrounds here-to-fore known as "Camp Killame Now" (Sanborn Skyline Park)?
No where on their site does it state that the walk-in campgrounds basically make you hike UPHILL, ALLLLLLLLLLL the way and the camp sites are nowhere near to being close to where you are forced to park your vehicle at. They should be sued for not having warning signs posted both online and AT the bottom of the hill in the parking lot that if you have a heart condition or respiratory issues that this hill could LITERALLY kill you.
Unlike many "walk-in" camp sites, they do not allow you to drive your car up to the site to drop off your gear and then go park your car in the designated parking lot. What this means in this case is that you have to actually hike while carrying your crap into your camp site. Had we known this, we would have gone somewhere completely different (see: better) and backpacked it, because believe me, it would have been easier than what we faced here at "Camp Killame Now".
Now, there ARE a whopping THREE "25 pound wooden carts" available SOMETIMES that you can use to cart your gear up the incredibly increasingly steep inclined hills to get to your site. However, even with the help that these carts provide, the hike will most likely kill you if you have to use a cart. We were "lucky" (if you can call it luck) that we were only at sites 20-22. There were sites in the 30's that continued up the hill further and lord have mercy I would have died trying to go that far.
Now these carts that I mentioned are worth the same kind of value that cigarettes are in prison. For over 30 campsites there were only THREE, count them THREE of these carts available. Luckily for us we arrived early on Friday before the rush and we were able to utilize two of them. however when we left we noticed that the boy scouts that overran the place had hogged them all and were keeping them at their campsites even though they had signs on them stating they had to be returned when done using them. The last day was hell as we had no carts and we had to make multiple trips to get our gear down to the cars.
The best thing that I can say about this place is that the bathrooms and the showers (yeah, yeah I know who showers when they go camping?) were absolutely positively immaculate and there were hundreds of boy scouts around us sharing the same bathrooms etc.
Once we got settled in for the duration, we DID have a great time, but this was solely based on the friends that we were camping with.
First Night:
We had three campsites for 8 people. We were well within the site restrictions that they set on the number of people that can occupy one site. We were having some drinks and the 8 of us were playing some board games and I will admit that we did get a bit loud at times laughing and yelling out answers to the questions from the game, but what happened next was quite upsetting.
The ranger on duty came over and she was a nice lady that asked us to please keep it down as it was after 10PM. We all understood and so we were capitulating when all of a sudden from behind her popped up a Sheriff. He came forward and immediately asked, "How many people are there here"? We told him just us 8 but we have the three campsites clustered together. He then instructed us to "disband", go to our tents and go to sleep. Shocked, we all complied. Irritated, a few of us gathered in one of our tents and we chatted quietly and we watched a DVD on our portable DVD player.
The next morning we were all pretty upset about the whole situation from the night before and we felt that being "paying customers" and then told we had to go to bed like we were little kids was unacceptable. We spoke to the Chief Ranger that same morning and she apologized and admitted that there were other complaints about the young Sheriff and the way he was treating the campers...
Second night:
All went well. We did not get bothered at all by the Sheriff or Ranger, but we did make it an effort to keep it down after 10PM as best we could and when we realized it was becoming difficult, some of us gathered in a tent and we played cards and watched another movie, but this time of our own volition and not being forced into it.
There was an incident earlier that night with a stubborn little raccoon though that would not leave our camp sites alone and he was getting awfully close to us while we were sitting at the picnic table playing games. We tried shooing and scaring hm away with loud noises etc. but he was one hell of a trooper and held his ground. He was always hanging just outside of the circle of light, but seemed to leave us alone well enough.
We will NEVER be back here again. -
Review from Wes M.
San Francisco, CA
6/30/2007 3 photos
Taking Highway 9 out of Saratoga will lead you into a veritable wonderland of hiking opportunities (not to mention wineries), and Sanborn-Skyline is the very first park you will pass, a mere 2 or 3 miles outside the city.
There's a lot of facilities at the park's main entrance, including a campground and a nearby hostel, and several trails from here as well. However, we opted to continue on Sanborn Rd to the John Nicholas Trail, a dirt road which runs 2.5 miles up to Black Road.
It's a thoroughly pleasant though unspectacular hike, and the obvious highlight is the Lake Ranch Reservoir, which is overlooked by a perfectly-placed picnic table.
Definitely a recommended stop on the South Bay hiking circuit. I'll have to come back and check out the trail to Sunnyvale Mountain sometime.Listed in: South Bay
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Review from Jason T.
San Jose, CA
3/2/2009
As others have said, that hill to get from where you park your car to the actual campsites is a steep, paved path that sucked getting everything up. But, once you get up to your site, this is a nice place to stay with plenty of hiking in a nice setting. The sites are nothing special and I recommend you scope out the sites before you book if you have a large tent because some sites do not easily accommodate larger tents.
I went with my girl and a couple of her friends and we all liked our campsites. They do have a shower and restrooms, but the shower is next to where you park so bring your clean clothes to change into before hiking back up the hill in your robe or towel. -
Review from Miaka W.
Santa Clara, CA
8/3/2010
My review is mostly based on the hike, NOT about the campground, yet I would most def. like to come here to camp as 1) there are bathrooms and shower, 2) great big grassy area for playing Frisbee and picnic.
Agree with the below poster (JenH) that this place is mostly shaded (90% of the hike), a great place to hike during a hot day. We hiked up pass lots of camp sites (#20 and up, where posters complained about), it was very steep right away and the inclined was tough if you are a beginner hiker. We cont' our hike on the Sanborn Trial and the elevation kept increasing, but the shading of the trees helped a lot. Still, we sweat and drink most of our water going up. Then we cut through to Peterson Trail and took San Andreas coming back down. At certain spot going down hill was tough because of the steepness, so be very careful and wear good hiking shoes. We passed by the Hostel, Group area, and back at the Visitor Center after a good 2 hours of sweating hike.
The view at certain spot was great, you can clearly see the city (San Jose) and also other park/trails. The redwoods was astonishing and beautiful. Parking is $6 but for all the amenities they are providing, I think it's a great price. Would def. go back there again when I am in better shape!! -
Review from Renee R.
San Jose, CA
9/17/2007
I'm writing this as a review of their camping facilities (esp. in comparison to other camping spots in the area.)
We just spent the weekend here and had a great time. Unfortunately for the park, we had a great time because of the family and friends that joined us, not the campsite.
Pros:
- Very close to downtown Saratoga. Extremely easy to get there.
- The site we chose was large enough for our two very large tents.
- Affordable
Cons:
- These are walk-in sites only - up a STEEP hill. They provide carts (which may or may not be available for use!) for you to drag all of your gear up a steep hill in hot weather to your camp site.
- No camp fires allowed! It's charcoal only because of high fire danger. What's camp without a camp fire??
- Hot weather. It isn't at a high elevation and doesn't get the cool sea breeze like Mt. Madonna or most other campgrounds.
- Many of the sites are teeny tiny. Make sure you check the virtual tour on the website to see how much space you will get and how close you will be to your neighbor (most are super close to each other.)
- Bugs/Spiders galore!! I have a touch of arachnophobia, so this was a big one for me. I imagine it's because of the warm weather, but they are EVERYWHERE. Ew.
This campground may be the right fit for some people, but isn't for this couple. -
Review from Daryll H.
New York, NY
2/28/2009
I didn't actually make it to the camping area, but I did a 3 hour hike with my dog on the trail that starts on Sanborn Rd near the Big Basin Way intersection.
The woodland here is great, though the trails are not well marked and there are a lot of stream crossings (some of which may be unnecessary, but it's not clear) -- most of the stream crossings don't have good stepping stones or logs, so make sure to wear proper boots. There was actually a family with children who had to turn back about 50' in from the road -- couldn't cross the stream.
To all of the people here posting bad reviews of the campground: Saratoga Springs campground is right near here and is awesome.
Update: I also recently did the entire John Nicholas trail around the reservoir -- the trail starts at the end of Sanborn Rd, goes up a huge hill, and then is pretty easy from there on out. The hike around the reservoir is scenic, and parts of the trail are good as well, though there isn't much challenge or variety -- more like an easy walk down a dirt road than a "hike" -
Review from terry h.
San Jose, CA
8/10/2008
I am not reviewing this place for the tent camping because I would never haul my stuff up that hill to camp, never. Why they don't let cars go up and down with camping supplies I'll never know, it is just plain wrong. Old people just can't take it and won't camp here and that is not fair to them because it is their park too.
But I have parked my Airstream trailer and camped here overnight with my fun nephew, (too expensive at $25.00) and had a good time even though the yellow jackets were going crazy all day after our food which was quite unpleasant.
The reason why I am giving this place 4 stars is because it is one beautiful park, very private and at the top, has a beautful view of the hills all around so that you feel you have gone a hundred miles away from the city even though you are only about 10 miles from Saratoga.
The San Andreas fault also goes right through here too according to the signs and the ranger shack which is kind of cool.
During the summer, there are a lot of kids running around having a lot of fun and that is nice. Go here, spend a day and you will be glad you got out of the city and did something nice for yourself. -
Review from Susan C.
Sunnyvale, CA
4/27/2011
I am a Yelp newbie but I had to give Sanborn a good review after seeing some of the negative comments here on the campground. I have camped and hiked at Sanborn multiple times over the years, and I think we are really fortunate to have such a nice facility relatively close to the South Bay suburbs. The campsites are decently sized, quiet and shaded - a definite plus with our hot summers. The park is well organized and appointed, with a picnic table, food locker and fire ring at each site, plus lots of activities: not only miles of hiking trails, but a nature center, amphitheater with Shakespeare plays (if you come at the right time), really nice rangers with evening campfire programs (my kids love this when it is scheduled in the summer), and big open fields for daytime play or nighttime stargazing. Yes there is a bit of a hike up the road to most of the sites - so I tend to book the lower ones, which are not as steep. That's why they're called "walk in" (duh) and not "drive in" sites - and it says quite clearly on the map "Steep Grade" on the path to the upper sites.
They do provide hand carts to help you schlep your gear to your site, but as others have stated, they may be heavily in use by other campers, so if you are concerned about being able to get all your gear in, you should either: a) pack lighter - like you're going backpacking, or b) camp somewhere else. There are a TON of other local county and state parks that offer drive-in car camping (Uvas, Grant, Big Basin, Portola Redwoods, Huddart, Santa Cruz area, etc.) Sanborn is different - and personally I really like the quiet of not having cars driving through the campground, and not having to worry about my kids getting run over (of course there's still the poison oak....) Oh and the raccoons here are REALLY aggressive, so keep that in mind when you store your food and make sure you secure it and/or put it away in the locker. We were getting stalked by the little critters, who even stole donuts off the table while we were sitting about 3 feet away, and they left cute little pawprints all over our cooler, trying to break into it. But this is nothing new for me, I've been harrassed by raccoons all over the state of California and it's just a reminder to please secure your food.
If any of this bothers you, perhaps Sanborn is not the park for you. For our family (incl. 2 little kids) and many friends and family we've taken camping there, it's 5-stars, but I'll take a star off for those of you who don't like the walk-in sites and other trade-offs. Happy Trails! -
Review from Rey C.
Sunnyvale, CA
7/27/2008
Hi there, this is my first review on yelp. unfortunately, my first review will be bad one. this review is in reference to the camping facilities at sanborn park. i agree with the other reviewer- the only reason why i had a fantastic time was due to the positivity level of the group we were camping with. all other aspects were pretty bad. please be aware that although i have been backpacking, this review is from a minimalist-moderate car camping perspective. i always leave the county to go camping because i dread that things like this might possibly happen. I'll explain:
parking: really good, plenty of parking available. maximum 6 persons per site, 2 tents per campsite, 2 cars per campsite. we were never hassled about paying any additional money or if we had special tags/stickers etc. maybe it was their carelessness- I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
closeness to the campsite? OH MY GOD. I've been to macchu picchu, so I've dealt with steep trekking and this is ridiculous for saratoga. you cannot park at your campsite. you have to park at the bottom, then load your stuff into a two-wheeled cart(all of which had bent/kinked rims which affect your push/pull up the hill). we checked in on Friday, and 2 carts were at the bottom of the hill. i realized that we had taken that for granted when it was time to check out on Sunday because NO carts were available. apparently our group(which took up 3 sites) were the only ones that did not belong the boy scout troops that took over the complete campgrounds this weekend. these carts had signs that said to return them to the bottom when finished unloading, but they were HOGGED by everyone! by the way, there are over 30 campsites and we saw only 3 carts roaming around at any given time.
the reason why i am stressing the cart situation is because these carts are what will soon determine your fate on this earth. these hills are steeper than any San Francisco street. the county website did read that there were golf carts available. i think they use this to lure you in. please dont be fooled.
bathrooms: i noticed 3 sets of bathrooms, one at the bottom of the hill which had showers (50 cents for 5 mins) which was warm at best and went cold every time someone flushed a toilet), one set of bathrooms halfway up the hill and last was a set of bathrooms at the very top of the hill. we used all three- Friday was clean, Saturday was a bit funky and Sunday smelled like ripe butt.
campsites: we had 20, 21 and 22. i think only 22 may have had room for 2 tents, the others do not unless you have a backpacking tent in addition to the 4 person tent. bear lockers were clean, fire pit areas clean with fire rings and grill area. no wood fires allowed which i understand because this year is pretty rough with all the fires, but that still was a bummer. the sites were close enough to hear people whisper and snore from inside their tents(thank you for the snore concert Mr. boy scout troop leaders in 23/24 sites)
security/noise/problems: we had a pair of rangers patrolling the grounds every night, apparently a bunch of drunk underage kids had a campsite at the top of the hill and were kicked out, cops/parents called etc...which prompted them to check out our campsite because we were all in one tent playing a board game. the female ranger (holly) was very polite and asked us to please keep it down. the junior deputy (sheriff, i think) who was accompanied her was rude and asked us to "break it up" as though we were children at a playground. we spoke with the chief ranger the next morning who confirmed that this deputy has already been complained about regarding his rude behavior towards campers. keep in mind what i wrote before- the campgrounds were flooded by boy scout troops. the chief ranger was very nice, and we were not bothered Saturday night.
thanks for reading my first long review, i like to keep things short usually but i had to vent so i figured why not on yelp? -
Review from Kalli C.
Beacon Hill, Boston, MA
9/27/2008
This review is not of the camping facilities at Sanborn Park, but rather of Peterson Grove and Sequoia Picnic area.
We got married here and our wedding was more beautiful than I can describe.
Our ceremony was held in Peterson Grove--a ring of redwoods with a deck built in the middle. We easily fit sixty people with plenty of room for the photographer to move around. We liked the grove so much, we took all our formals on the stage in the front.
We held our reception at the Sequoia Picnic area just next to the grove. It has a large open area where we set up bocci ball and ladder ball for our guests. Lunch was done under a covered patio at one end. It fit seven tables for dining and three more for the buffet.
The only problem we had was the bees. They only appear briefly at the beginning of lunch, but there we a few dozen of them. Once they figured out our food was not a rose bed, they seemed to leave us alone.
Sanborn Park was the perfect size and spot for our wedding.Listed in: There Will Be Wed
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Review from Alice M.
San Jose, CA
9/3/2007
We came here looking for a ceremony spot that could be close to the Saratoga Foothill Club (location we're considering for a reception). Peterson Grove is a really cool ring of very tall old redwoods. They've built a deck in the center of the ring, which would make a very lovely spot for a small wedding. You can rent out Peterson Grove (which comes with a large adjoining picnic area and covered pavilion that could fit a few hundred people) for only $300. Only about 40 or so people could fit on the deck that's in the center of the ring of redwoods though. What's great is that it's a beautiful site yet no other picnic areas right next to it, close to a bathroom and close to the parking lot.
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Review from Jennifer B.
Ashland, OR
6/21/2010
I love that this place is so close but still feels like I'm getting away from everything. There's a creek that runs through the campground and many different types of trees. For all you campers (like me) who need showers in order to camp, not to worry--they have those too! It's 50 cents for 5 minutes. I'd recommend staying in sites 1-10 because you have to park your car and walk up a paved hill to your site. This time they provided carts, but I've been there before when the carts were all broken and had to carry all my things up by hand. I don't know if they always do this, but they only allowed charcoal fires (which really brings the camping experience down a notch in my book). Another thing to note is that they lock the gates at sunset, so there's no in and out privileges. All in all, not a bad place for last minute camping.
