The San Jose Mercury had a nice travelogue of a day trip from San Francisco all the way to Stevens Creek Canyon and the sights along the way. One of the highlights is the 'Royal Palms' that lined a street in Cupertino near the entrance of the canyon. Surprisingly, the scene still can be experienced today at Palm Ave.
T. A. Skinner, manager of the Winton Company, gives the following description of a beautiful trip which would make the weekend motor car outing delightful as well as interesting: “Leaving San Francisco we motored in a new model Winton down the highway to old Mountain View, where a turn was made to the right on the Grant road, the sign board reading ‘Stevens Creek Trout Farm Highway.’ Cutting across the foothills directly west, we traveled over what we have always known to be the Stevens Creek road, past the Villa Maria. There are many beautiful spots before one reaches Stevens Creek proper; notably, the Avenue of Royal Palms. "As it was our idea the Stevens Creek road extended straight across the hills we drove along the road we have always taken until we arrived at a ranch which overlooks a portion of the hillside, where we were informed that the Stevens Creek road was on the other side in the canyon, and that we were on the Montebello road. We went back and turned to the right on the old road leading to where the trout farm used to be. Going by same we continued to follow the road until we arrived in a deep canyon and discovered we had been missing one of the most beautiful spots in California. "It is a reminder of the early days of motoring in the mountains, as there are no bridges across the streams, and in order to reach the headwaters of the creek it is necessary to ford the creek about ten times. In some places it is almost up to the hubs, but having a hard bottom there is no danger of being stalled."
Sources:
San Francisco Call, December 6, 1919
Edward Denny & Co Santa Clara County Map, 1913
