Mount Thayer

The Sierra Azul is a mountain range in Santa Clara County, California. It is the southern half of the Santa Cruz Mountains range, which is divided into two parts by California Highway 17 into what the colonizing Spanish called the Sierra Morena or "Brown Mountains" to the north and the Sierra Azul or "Blue Mountains" to the south. Part of the range is within the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve. The highest peak is Mount Umunhum, the site of the former Almaden Air Force Station radar site and the current location of a NEXRAD weather radar of the National Weather Service which serves the San Francisco Bay Area and Monterey Bay Area.

Mount Umunhum ( UH-mə-num) is a peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, located in Santa Clara County, California. It is the fourth-highest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, after Loma Prieta, Crystal Peak, and Mt. Chual. Most of the mountain is located within the Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve.

Lake Elsman is a 6,200-acre-foot (7,600,000 m3) reservoir, created by an earthen dam called Austrian Dam on Los Gatos Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. At several points it is over 140' deep and its normal surface area is 96 acres. It provides 12% of San Jose Water Works’ total water capacity in some years. The lake and dam is owned by the San Jose Water Company,In 1988 and 1989, two earthquakes at M=5.3 and 5.4 respectively occurred at Lake Elsman that transferred stress that led to the 1989 M=6.9 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Wrights, California (also known as Wrights Station) is a ghost town in unincorporated west Santa Clara County, California. It is located near Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains, on the north bank of Los Gatos Creek, east of State Route 17.The National Weather Service maintained a cooperative weather station on the site of Wrights until May 31, 1986, which recorded rainfall and snowfall. The weather station was 1,600 feet (490 m) above sea level. The location is on the San Andreas Fault, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and it experienced considerable damage in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Geologists observed a lateral displacement of 4.6 feet (1.4 m) at Wrights.Wrights is one of a number of ghost towns in the Santa Cruz Mountains that flourished during the last half of the nineteenth century. Laurel, Wrights, Glenwood, and Clems declined when the Los Gatos-Santa Cruz railroad ceased operations in March 1940. Later in 1940, Patchen was bypassed and isolated by the construction of State Route 17; since the late 1960s it has been a Christmas tree ranch. Alma and Lexington were submerged in Lexington Reservoir in 1952, along State Route 17 above Los Gatos.

The Wrights Tunnel (also known as the Summit Tunnel, Tunnel 2, or Tunnel 1 after the daylighting of the Cats Canyon tunnel) is a railroad tunnel located in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties, California. Opened in 1880 after almost two years of construction involving numerous fatalities, the tunnel was at one point the longest tunnel in California and one the longest tunnels in the United States. It carried the tracks of the narrow gauge South Pacific Coast Railroad, which ran trains from San Francisco to Santa Cruz until the railroad was acquired by Southern Pacific Railroad, which upgraded the tracks to standard gauge and continued operating trains through the line and its tunnel until a major storm in 1940 washed out certain sections of the track in the Santa Cruz Mountains. After two years of no rail traffic on the line, Southern Pacific abandoned the line. Subsequently, the United States Army Corps of Engineers collapsed both portals with explosives, destroying the northern portal in the process. The interior of the tunnel remains intact along with the south portal, but the conditions of the interior are unknown, particularly since the tunnel crosses the San Andreas Fault and no person has entered the tunnel in the aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

Burrell, California was an early settlement in Santa Cruz County near the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-southeast of Wrights. It was named for Lyman John Burrell, who settled there in the early 1850s. There was a Burrell School, which was later abandoned. A hotel was operated by James Richard Wright, whose son John Vincent Wright was honored by the naming of Wright's Station, which was more commonly known as Wrights.The settlement was located at latitude 370718N, longitude 1215547W; decimal degrees: latitude 37.12167, longitude -121.92972. The site is at the junction of Summit Road and Loma Prieta Avenue.Today, the site, including the restored historic school building, is home to the Burrell School Winery and Vineyards. David and Anne Moulton began development of the Estate vineyard in 1973. At a 1,600-foot (490 m) elevation, the site faces to the southwest. Soils are a complex mixture of loam and shale due to the close proximity to the San Andreas Fault. Initial plantings were to Chardonnay and Merlot, with Pinot Noir added in 2002. Cultivation and spraying are done with heritage Cletrac tractors; pruning, seasonal operations and picking are all done by hand.

Hicks Creek, also known as Reynolds Creek, is a perennial 1.9 miles (3.1 km) northeast flowing stream in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is tributary to Guadalupe Creek, which is in turn, tributary to the Guadalupe River and south San Francisco Bay at San Jose, California.

Pheasant Creek is a perennial to intermittent 1.8 miles (2.9 km) north-by-northeast flowing stream in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is tributary to Guadalupe Creek, which is in turn, tributary to the Guadalupe River and south San Francisco Bay at San Jose, California.

KJLV (95.3 FM) is a radio station in Los Gatos, California, United States, serving the San Jose and Santa Clara Valley area. It is owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and part of its K-Love network. The primary transmitter is on Blackberry Hill Road in Los Gatos. KJLV also has two booster stations on 95.3 MHz: KJLV-FM1 serving Scotts Valley and KJLV-FM2 at New Almaden. What is today KJLV began broadcasting in 1966 as KLGS. From 1990 to 2022, it aired a country music format under the KRTY call sign. Despite good ratings performance, it was sold as part of the dissolution of deceased owner Bob Kieve's estate to EMF. An internet station, KRTY.com, continues the country format.

Rancho Los Capitancillos was a 3,360-acre (13.6 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Clara County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Justo Larios. Los Capitancillos means the Little Captains in Spanish. The grant was south of present-day San Jose and was bounded on the south by José de los Reyes Berreyesa's Rancho San Vicente.

Guadalupe Reservoir is a reservoir in Santa Clara County, California, United States, about 5 miles (8 km) south of the city of San Jose, California. It is at an elevation of 614 feet (187 m). It has a surface area of 74 acres (300,000 m2) and a capacity of 3,415 acre-feet (4,212,000 m3). The reservoir is located along Hicks Road on Guadalupe Creek, a tributary of the Guadalupe River. The Guadalupe River was named Rio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe on March 30, 1776, by the de Anza expedition, in honor of the Mexican saint who was the principal patron saint of the expedition. Guadalupe dam and reservoir, constructed in 1935, is one of the six original systems approved for construction by voters in 1934. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has developed a safe eating advisory for the reservoir, stating no one should eat any fish caught there.

Almaden Quicksilver County Park is a 4,163 acres (17 km²) park that includes the grounds of former mercury ("quicksilver") mines adjacent to south San Jose, California, USA. The park's elevation varies greatly: the most used entrances (on the east side of the park) are less than 600 feet (183 m) above sea level, while the highest point in the park is over 1,700 feet (518 m) above sea level. The park is owned by the County of Santa Clara and managed by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department. Its grounds include the Guadalupe Reservoir and features sweeping views of San Jose. Adjacent to the park is the Almaden Reservoir. The Casa Grande Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum is located in nearby New Almaden. The park is named after the New Almaden Quicksilver Mines, which were named after the mercury mine in (old) Almadén, Spain, and produced mercury that was used to process ore during the Gold Rush.