Big Basin Redwoods State Park – Waterfall loop 8/28/2011


 This week we we were planning to hike Mt. Diablo, but the daytime temperature in Concord was in the high 80s. Hence, we decided to hike in a wooded area. My friend suggested The Big Basin Redwoods Park.  We left home early in the morning and reached the park by nine-thirty in the morning. The drive to Big Basin State Park is very beautiful. We got there by taking the Saratoga South exit on highway 85, and then continuing on route 9 for another fourteen miles. After that, we took route 236 which was an 8.5 mile long winding road in the forest. Among ourselves, we decided to take the The Waterfall Loop, a strenuous hike in the woods, which the park ranger told us would take around five to six hours.

 
The trail starts at the park headquarters and goes via Sunset trail downhill. The park is full of large redwood trees. After turning on Drool trail and then back on the Sunset trail, we followed a stream of water. In areas with stagnant water, the clarity of the water is mind-boggling and the image on the bottom is very crisp. Fallen trees were pervasive throughout the hike, and my kids wanted to walk over each and every fallen tree trunk. Part of the trail also goes under some of the fallen trunks. Soon, we saw many patches of shrubs, particularly clovers.  On the way we encountered a many banana slugs, which were almost 5-6 inches long. My daughter dared me to place a banana slug on my nose for 10 seconds, and I reluctantly obliged. It was gross but my kids enjoyed it and were proud of me J.


The downward descent stopped after we crossed Berry Creek. The trail (Sunset) starts ascending very quickly after that. It wasn't long until we reached the Berry Creek Falls. We had a small lunch break at the fall vista point (the picture on the right is from that point.) It was almost 2 hours since we started, and lunch in front of the fall was a very attractive idea. Obviously, we were walking very leisurely, taking lots of snaps along the way. We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of water at the waterfall, considering it was late summer. The segment by the waterfall was especially hard because we essentially climbed up parallel to the waterfall. Within another quarter mile, we saw a series of other waterfalls, of which the Golden Cascades is the most beautiful. It is a smoothed-out bright tan rock that has a thin layer of water flowing on top. I would recommend having a lunch break at the Golden Cascades instead of the Berry Creek Falls.

After the water falls, the trail comes to an open area with a beautiful view of the big basin. We looked out on the tall evergreens throughout the valley. Then, we turned back on to the Sunset trail for our return journey. We walked quite fast on the way back and made very good time, compensating for our leisure before lunch. In the end, it took almost 5 hours for the whole hike. Since it was mostly in the woods the trek was not as tiring as we thought it would be. I would highly recommend this hike. 
My newyu tracked total distance of 11 miles. In addition, the elevation throughout the hike varied about two thousand feet.

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