Toro County Park
Directions: From Salinas, following Main Street out to High 68 towards Monterey. From Highway 68 take the exit for Toro County Park and circle back around and underneath Highway 68 and you will see the entrance for the park.
Parking Fee: $6.00
Facilities: toilets, BBQ and picnic areas, equestrian areas, just about everything
Equestrian area
Starting my hike
Hiking up the Toyon Ridge Trail
Looking back
Heading to the first peak
1404 ft peak at the top
Some nice single track
Cougar Ridge Trail?
Coyote Spring trail
Max and Sharon
Shady bottom before climbing again
Black Mountain Trail to Simas Peak
Ollason Peak panorama
Ollason Peak
Ollason Peak 1800 feet
Looking out towards Salinas
Looking back
Ollason trail
Mount Toro in the distance
Cool tree
Mountain Bike Race
Bike racer walking up hill
Ollason trail still
Old snag for Tom, enjoy!
Ollason trail in the flatlands
Meyers Trail hooks in with the Ollason Trail
Ahhhh, flowers
Cute
Back to civilization
Park residence I guess
On Saturday, 10-May-2008, I went for a hike at Toro County Park
Hike route: equestrian area -> Toyon Ridge Trail -> Coyote Spring Trail -> Black Mountain Trail -> Ollason Trail -> end
National Geographic TOPO! software website:
GPS Stats
Distance hiked: 9.2 miles
Total ascent: 2000 ft
Trailhead Elevation: 200 ft
Max Elevation: 1800 ft
Moving time: 3 hrs 30 min
Moving Average: 2.5 mph
Overall average: 1.9 mph
Time stopped: 1 hrs 15 min
Personal stats
Dates Hiked:
10-May-2008
Start time: 12:15AM
Weather: Temperatures in the 70’s and low 80’s for the hike, clear and sunny with a light breeze. Simply beautiful!
Water consumed: 1.5 liters
plus 600 ml Gatorade
Finish time: ~ 5:00 PM
Total time: ~ 4 hrs 45 min
Beauty: There was an abundance of wildflowers and bloom and the views were fabulous. This really is a nice park!
Wildlife seen: Birds soaring over the park. In addition, I saw a couple of small animals from a distance that disappeared into burrows. Could they have been badgers? I don’t know as I understand they are mostly underground in burrows during the day and mostly come out at night. But I think the size, shape, and coloring fit so who knows.
Difficulty: This hike was generally moderate. There were some pretty steep sections though that would require some level of fitness.
"Aren't you afraid of Mountain lions?"
"I'm terrified actually!" I told the two mountain bikers I met on the Ollason Trail. I was after all, hiking by myself in what should be prime mountain lion country. But given how rare lion attacks on humans in California are and given as well, how the fellow manning the park entrance told me that there had been no recent sightings of them in the park and that they had retreated to more secluded areas, I figured it was safe enough.
And so, Saturday May 10 found me hiking Toro County Park, a 4756-acre park on Highway 68 near Salinas. I actually grew up in Salinas during the 1960's but by the time the park had opened in 1971, I had left to go to college. As a result, I never really knew about this park until I noticed a group from the Stanford Outing Club was planning to hike it on Sunday May 11. I couldn't hike on that Sunday so I decided to beat them to the punch and went there a day earlier.
Toro County Park has a over 20 miles of hiking trails and all of them seem to climb up some pretty good hills Henry Coe style. Switchbacks? We don't need no stinking switchbacks. These trails go straight up the damn hill! For us hikers, there is a certain appeal to that. But unlike Henry Coe, Toro Park also has some extensive standard green grass and trees, city park style areas where people can barbeque, picnic, and have pickup games of touch football.
All that is nice but my thing is hiking and so I took to the trails. I initially thought I would try for the hike to Simas Peak and then loop back on one trail or another. I found my first trail, Toyon Ridge Trail, behind the corral for the equestrian area, or at least it was a little trail to the Toyon Ridge Trail. It had me climbing pretty quick up the ridge and before long I had some views out into the Salinas Valley where I could see Spreckles and Salinas. The hike up the Toyon Ridge Trail is more like hiking up a small dirt road than single track, and you are in the open with brush dropping off both sides of the ridge. There were some pretty steep sections to it here and there, though most of it wasn't too bad. I eventually hit one peak of 1404 feet before descending down somewhat to the Coyote Spring Trail.
Sometimes I am a chatty sort and find myself stopping to say hi to people I meet on the trail. And I ran into a delightfully couple named Sharon and Max, who gave me some great suggestions and advice for hiking the park. It was a little warm at that point and the brief rest with them in the shade felt good.
From there I followed the Coyote Spring Trail to the Black Mountain Trail. I turned left on the Black Mountain Trail for the hike to Simas Peak but when the going got steep, Henry Coe style steep, I looked at my watch, saw it was 3:30 PM and decided to save that for another day. So I turned and went the other way for the short hike up to Ollason Peak, an 1800 foot grass covered and open peak with fabulous views all around. It was so neat up there I could have just sat down and cried. I just loved it.
At first I was not sure if I could hike down the Ollason Trail as some areas of the park were closed off due to a mountain bike race that was in progress on that trail, but several mountain bikers I ran into on Ollason Peak told me it would be OK. So I headed on down that trail to loop back.
And a little ways down I ran into a spot high up on the trail that was marked as the start of the run for the race. They had the racetrack roped off on the trail and only one biker at a time would race down the track for time. I just had to stay on the outside of the roped track. It didn't take me that long to descend the trail and while I did, I only saw one bike racer heading down and he wasn’t' going that fast. All in all, that worked out well for me and the Ollason Trail made for a bigger loop than some other trail possibilities.
Otherwise I stayed on the Ollason Trail to the bottom and back down to the picnic areas and on over to my car. While it wasn't the longest hike in the world, I could have made it longer if I had continued to Simas Peak. It also leaves me wondering about the nearby Mount Toro peak that looms over Salinas. I don't know if hiking on Mount Toro is allowed, I suspect it isn't, but if it were, that would make a hike that would rival Mount Diablo. I'll have to look into it to find out. But for now, lets see the pictures.
