Former mountain-top military base opens to public - Santa Clara County, California
Posted by: 
DougK
N 37° 09.631 W 121° 53.860
10S E 597876 N 4113248
Mount Umunhum, pronounced “Um-un-um,” comes from the Ohlone Indian word for hummingbird. The summit will now be accessible via road and open to the public for free starting Sept 18, 2017.
Waymark Code: WMWJTD
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 09/13/2017
Views: 4
Mount Umunhum is the home to the former
Almaden Air Force Station. Closed and abandoned in 1980, access to this mountain top has been desired by hikers and the public in general. Bond measure AA was passed in 2014 by 68% of Santa Clara County voter was for funds to clean up and open this site.
The crowning structure of this site is an 84-foot tall concrete tower which was the base of a radar dish, looking for Soviet bombers approaching from the west. This tower is visible for miles from from down in the valley below.
From this summit, terrific 360 degree views cover Silicon Valley to the north and Monterey Bay to the south.
Extracted from the Mercury News article:
Thirty-seven years after the U.S. Air Force shut down a mountain-top radar station in the hills south of San Jose that scanned the skies for Soviet bombers during the Cold War, the summit of Mount Umunhum is finally opening to the public this week as a new park, with stunning views of San Francisco Bay, Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay.
The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, a public agency that owns the 3,486-foot peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains east of Los Gatos, spent $25 million over eight years on the project.
Supporters say the new summit, which visitors will be able to drive to free of charge, could instantly become a must-experience landmark — the South Bay’s version of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County or Mount Tamalpais in Marin County.
The new facilities include a freshly paved road with new guard rails and culverts up the 5-mile drive to the summit, replacing a cracked, potholed route that dated back to the 1970s. There also are restrooms, a parking lot for 53 cars, hiking trails, and two shelters with interpretive panels featuring information about the Air Force, Ohlone Indians, other peaks in the Bay Area, and plants and animals that live on the mountain. The peak will be the highest point on the Bay Area Ridge Trail, a 550-mile loop that runs across the hills and ridges of the nine Bay Area counties.