Monday of this past week there was no school, so I requested two days off work and went camping.
I was not prepared to go to the snow so I headed for the coast instead. There are three state parks in the Santa Cruz Mountains between S.F. San Jose and Santa Cruz. I have never stayed at any of them, so I decided to do the waterfall loop in Big Basin Redwoods S.P. between Santa Cruz and San Jose.
Fearing Bay Area traffic I originally planned to leave early, like three in the morning, but I slept through my alarm clock and didn't leave until 7:30. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because if I am to tired to get up, I am to tired to drive. And, with the holiday, traffic was smooth all the way down.
When I got to the park I discovered that you can't pay camping fees with plastic so I had to drive back into "town" for an ATM. (Boulder Creek has an independent gas station, a whole foods store, some antique shops and a whole bunch of hippies, not much of a town really) Then I went back to the park and got registered and parked. [at this point I also found I had packed two left hiking boots so I ended up doing the trails in sneakers :o( ]
I then shouldered my gear and took off. I first went to Semperviens falls witch is over by the big campgrounds and a mile or so away from the trailhead I wanted to follow, but I had time and the extra hiking was good for me. Semperviens is the smallest of the falls I saw but maybe the prettiest. It drops 20 or so feet on a small creek into a quite pool and is just very pleasant.
Then I headed back to the trailhead and started going up. Sunset trail winds through the woods and up over a pair of ridges about 5 miles to the Sunset trail camp where I planned on sleeping. It gains five hundred feet then drops back down to about the starting elevation then gains them all back as you approach the campsite. It was a good place to start my prep for this summers big hike and I reminder that I have been spending to much time in the car.
The sunset trail camp has a vault toilet and some nice flat spaces to pitch a tent but no fires are allowed and you have to hike a ways to the creek to get water. After the sun went down I was dazzled by all the stars I could see considering I was less then fifty miles from two of California’s biggest cities, it was beautiful. I ate a simple meal of rice with a chicken sauce then went to bed. Having slept in that morning I did not fall asleep very quickly but I was still out much earlier than I would have been had I been at home.
The next morning I awoke with the sun and went exploring. I hiked down the trail I would be on later and viewed all three of the waters falls in the morning light. When I got to the bottom of the canyon to where Berry Creek Falls is I noticed that If I could be back down to it with all my gear in 45 minuets or so I would have the perfect lighting for taking pictures of it. I hustled back up the canyon and broke camp. I then filled my water bottles for the day and started the hike down. I now had my gear with me to slow me down and on top of that, I kept wanting to stop and take pictures of things. One of the cameras I had with me I got from Grandpa and it is kind of tricky so I kept trying to figure it out. By the time I got back to berry creek falls I had missed the lighting I was hoping for but I still had a rainbow. And while I was taking a few pictures of the fall I finally figured out the camera. Turning the crank one way advanced the film but then you had to turn the crank back the other way to cock the shutter, oh, how simple. I then dropped my gear and hiked back up to silver falls and golden falls to get pictures of them with that camera as well.
In the space of a mile the skyline trail follows berry creek past Golden Falls Silver Falls and Berry creek Falls. In that direction they become progressing larger and more impressive. Golden Falls I saw first and given its name I had expected a lot from it, but was kind of disappointed. It is a cascading fall that is named golden not because of its majesty but because of its color. The falls has deposited a coat of yellowish clay on the rocks it flows over no really that pretty. The next water fall is Silver Falls it's a strait drop of about 60 feet and is very pretty however the trail next to it is steep and very slippery and presents the falls at a funny angle to admire it from.
Berry Creek Falls is gorgeous. It is taller than silver falls and has much more flow because the it is just below a confluence on Berry Creek. It has a curved mouth at the top and falls into a pond at the bottom. It is at an opening in the canyon so you can see it better and there is more dramatic lighting and a lot of greenery on the cliffs around the falls including some massive redwoods, and as I mentioned above the water fall was creating a rainbow above the pond while I was there.
I was not using a light meter and, as stated, I am not very familiar with medium format photography but if any of the pics turned out I will post them for you.
The hike out was un eventful. I took skyline to the sea trail back to park headquarters. it follows waddle creek and while it is still uphill I don't think it is as drastic as sunset trail was. Also, the redwood trees seemed more impressive along waddle creek than they had been along the sunset trail. I got to the trailhead about 1:30 and dropped my gear and went to get the car from the overnight parking lot half a mile away. When I got to the car I remembered, the keys were inside my pack. I had to walk back get the keys then go get the car. GRRRR. Oh well.
The drive home was a little frustrating. As I was driving back along this windy mountain road I had a great big freight truck riding my bumper. When I finally got tired of feeling like I was being chased in an attempt to kill me I pulled over and let him pass. With my car parked at the side of the road I decided to hike back up the road aways to where there had been a clearing and you could see the valley below. When I got up their I realize I could see the pacific ocean in the distance. It was very cool. I drove on after taking in the view and as I approached the onramp to hiway 17 I notice my car was running hot, in fact the temperature was nearing the redline. So I pulled over and waiting awhile fore it to cool down. After a while I felt I could drive on to the next exit and look for a spot with water where I could check out my car. I turned out I was quite low on oil so I added a quart out of my trunk and after that all was well. but these unplanned delays put me in some pretty ugly traffic all the way from San Jose to the toll bridge at Bencia. I hate traffic but I suppose it is just part of life, and If going camping on a week day when everybody else is working means I have to put up with bad traffic on the way home, then so be it.
