Purisima Creek Redwoods, Half Moon Bay



This week we decided to hike the Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve, near Half Moon Bay. You can reach the park by taking 92 West to Half Moon Bay. Then you take Higgins Canyon exit at 1 South, which leads a very narrow road for 4.2 miles to the trailhead on the left side of the road. This park has 4 entrances. We chose the trailhead at Higgins Canyon entrance. This parking lot only caters for 8 cars at this entrance.


There are many trails options within the park. We decided to do a loop hike including Bald Knob (2102 feet elevation). The trailhead is at 400 feet elevation. The weather was cloudy and little chillier with temperatures in mid 50s. We started our trek with a flat mile long Purisima Creek trail. The landscape was extremely green. This park gives you a feeling that you are hiking in a dense rain forest. The stroll was along the water stream was extremely pleasant. My son and me crossed a slippery fallen tree bridge over the water stream for fun.  We saw the first the banana slug on the tree.  We had no idea that we would see later thousands of big and fat slugs over the whole trail.  After a mile from trailhead, we turned right on Borden Hatch Mill Trail. This is a moderate climb for next 2.5 miles covered with towering Redwoods.  On the way we observed few slow moving lizards. Typically the lizards move rapidly as you approach them.

Since we wanted to climb the Bald Knob, we took a right turn on the narrow Bald Knob trail. On this trail you see many trees covered with green moss.  First time on this trail after 4 miles of walk, we saw open sky for a very short duration.  After another 1.3-mile hike, we reached a junction where few trails meet including uphill to the Bald Knob, Irish Ridge Trail. We went up another 300 feet for next quarter mile to the top. Contrary to the name, the top was covered with trees. We spotted beautiful red flowers among the green leaves.  We spent few minutes at the top, had some snacks.





We started our return journey on the Bald Knob trail. We connected to Grabtown Gulch Trail via Borden Hatch Mill trail. The Grabtown trail is very steep for 1.5 miles. Luckily we were descending on this trail. We crossed a old steel bridge on the Grabtown Gulch before connecting back to Purisima Creek trail. From the junction the trailhead is 1.05 miles. I would rate this hike a mild to moderate difficulty. According to my NewYu, we walked 9.35 miles with elevation changes about 1700 feet. 




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