Mary and I went hiking in Big Basin Redwood State Park on Sunday over Labor Day Weekend. We don’t go there very often, but I’m not sure why. It’s a really beautiful park. When we have visitors, we usually take them to Muir Wood. I guess that’s because you can combine Muir Woods with a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge and other sites in San Francisco. As for redwoods, Big Basin is every bit as nice.

Mary and I decided to do a loop to Berry Creek that was listed at 10 to 12 miles depending on whose account you read. Maybe the extra distance depends on where you park, as we were a good half mile from park headquarters. The trail starts out at park headquarters and proceeds between the Redwood Loop and the Amphitheater. You quickly come to a tee with the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail (pictured left). I had read that going in a counter-clockwise direction has a slightly elevation profile, but somehow I decided we were supposed to go to the left at the tee. So we proceeded in a clockwise direction.

We quickly passed the back side of the Redwood Loop, and I figured we would not see many more for the rest of the hike. I was happily surprised to fine redwoods along nearly the entire trail. In fact, most of the time we were hiking in old growth forest. The first half mile or so winds its way up the Middle Ridge. Another half mile brings you to Kelly Creek. The trail follows the creek until it meets West Waddell Creek. Here you can take the Timms Creek Trail to cut the hike down to about 6 miles. We were interested in seeing Berry Creek Falls, even though there isn’t much water this time of year, so we pushed on. After passing Timms Creek Trail, the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail follows the West Waddell Creek downstream. There are still plenty of redwoods around and there was even a bit of water in the creek. We spotted a couple of fish in one of the pools along the creek, but they were pretty small.

Eventually the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail meets the Berry Creek Trail, and immediately you have a decent view of Berry Creek Falls. If you continue on Skyline-to-the-Sea, you eventually hit the Pacific Ocean (with Skyline referring to the road of that name along the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains). Following the Berry Creek Trail you soon reach a large wooden viewing platform with a great view of the falls (picture left). Mary and I stopped here fro lunch (with quite a few others). Even with the limited water flow, we were both quite impressed with Berry Creek Falls. After lunch we continued along Berry Creek Trail, passing both Silver Falls and Golden Cascade. I think both of these falls would be much more impressive in the winter and spring where the water is really flowing. Even so, this portion of the trail is quite lovely.

After following Berry Creek for a mile or so we reached the Sunset Trail. Near the junction is the Sunset Camp which is probably a great destination for a backpacking trip. After climbing up from the creek bed, we were in open sunlight for a while (picture right). This was pretty much the only open area on the entire hike. There are some great views of rolling hills and evergreens as far as the eye can see.It’s probably about 4 miles back to HQ along the Sunset Trail. Other than the open part near the Berry Creek Trail junction, most of the rest is forested with a fair share of redwoods. Upon reaching the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail again, we were able to cut over the the parking area and get back to the car, saving a good half mile or more.

Big Basin is an awesome park, even though we seem to forget about it. I think we’ll be visiting more often in the future and are already talking about a backpacking trip there sometime. Usually for backpacking and long hikes I take my Cannon S3, but this time I decided to carry my Cannon 40D. It gave me an opportunity to use my wide angle lens, which I rarely do. Good thing its a fast lens, because there wasn’t a lot of light in the forest. Even so, I should have been using a tripod. Check out my Big Basin gallery for more pictures.